
Class J^. 
Book2: 



(7QFURKGHT DEPOSm 



RINCONETE AND CORTADILLO 




From a rare print 



CERVANTES 



MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA 

RINCONETE AND 
CORTADILLO 



TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH WITH AN 
INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY 

MARIANO J. LORENTE 



WITH A PREFACE BY 

R. B. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM 




Boston 

The Four Seas Company 

1917 






^^^^\ 



Copyright, ipi^, by 

THE FOUR SEAS COMPANY 



11 



i9. 



THE FOUR SEAS PRESS 
BOSTON MASS. U. S. A. 

JAN -2 !3!8 
©CU481348 



This translation is dedicated 
TO MY MOTHER 



NOTE. 

In view of the controversial nature of my introduc- 
tion to tliis translation, it is only fair on my part that I 
should record the fact that when Mr. R. B. Curming- 
hame Graham wrote his preface he had not seen either 
the introduction or the translation itself. He is, there- 
fore, in no way accountable for any of my statements. 
The responsibility for them rests entirely on myself. 
He kindly wrote it at my request, and for his character- 
istically elegant preface I can thank him in no better 
way — nor in one which he will better understand — than 
by quoting the beggars of Spain and saying: "Herma- 
nito, Dios se lo pague." 

For many valuable suggestions I wish to thank a 
Spanish scholar, as brilliant as he is modest. 
Dr. J. J. Mangan. 

M. J. L. 



PREFACE 
To Discreet Cervantophiles 
Cervantes excelled in prefaces. Hence anyone who 
dares to write a preface to a translation of any of his 
works should bear in mind what he says in the preface 
to the Exemplary Novels, amongst which Rinconete 
and Cortadillo occurs. 

"No more, except God save you, and may he give 
me patience to bear the evil which more than four sly 
and stiff-starched fellows are sure to say of me." 
Yet in that preface is contained the picture of himself, 
rendered in right Toledan, and in unfading ink, which 
shows him to us, as well as if it had been painted by 
Velazquez, for the method of Cervantes was as realistic 
as was that of his compeers. 

"He that you see here with an aquiline face, with 
chestnut hair, smooth and open forehead, with cheerful 
eyes, hooked nose, though it is well proportioned, his 
beard of silver, though twenty years ago it was of 
gold ... is called commonly Miguel de Cervantes 
Saavedra. 

"He was a soldier many years, and for five years 
and a half a captive, during which he learned the art 
of patience in adversity. . ." 

7 



8 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

Even after he had penned this preface, a master- 
piece of modesty tempered with a due sense of his own 
worth, he yet was certain that he would not escape 
the breath of calumny, the envy of the dull, censure 
of fools, and the detraction of those who read a book, 
not to admire its beauties, but to pick out its faults. 

If he who wrote the noble prologue to the second 
part of his Don Quixote, and penned, an hour or two 
before his death, the touching, humorously contrived 
foreword to his Persiles, which few can laugh at with- 
out feeling that their laughter is so near to tears, that 
they are never certain where the laughter finishes and 
the tears begin, was well aware that he would have 
detractors, what is the case of us, his humble fellow 
laborers with the pen. 

Your preface-monger. What is he after all? At best 
but a mere stalking horse behind whose cover the 
writer of the book may shelter for a moment ere he 
steps out into the public view. Hardly a stalking horse, 
for rightly apprehended your stalking horse serves for 
the fowler to take aim behind when he advances on his 
game. In this case, the writer is the game himself, and 
when the flimsy shield is drawn aside, the fusillade 
begins. 

So your poor pre face- writer runs a double danger; 
firstly he has to justify himself, with an apology for 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 9 

his brief, transient literary life, and next be careful 
that he does not give his principal away. Scattered 
throughout the prefaces Cervantes wrote are sayings, 
proverbs, incidents, and traits of Spanish life, with the 
author's moralisings on all that he had seen and under- 
gone. All are so various and so brilliant that other 
preface writers must perforce appear dull dogs, seen in 
comparison. 

No one in all the field of letters, but himself, with 
his foot as he puts it, in the stirrup, a few hours before 
his death could possibly have told the story of the 
brown-clad student that he met upon the road. 

One sees Cervantes jogging on his horse which as 
he tells us was a fast walker {era algo pasilargo), and 
hears the student calling to them from the rear. He 
comes up seated on a sorry mule, clad all in brown, 
with cloak-bag and with wallet, hears quite by accident 
his fellow traveller's name, alights incontinently. Then 
seizing hold of the left hand, marred in the battle of 
Lepanto, he kisses it, and launches into rhapsod)^ This 
is the "Manco-Sano", the festive writer, and finally 
the Darling of the Muses — he pours out, until Cervan- 
tes, having drawn away his hand, tells him that he is 
none of these things, and he had better get upon his 
mule. He does so, and happening to be a "medical,"' 
straight diagnoses the malady Cervantes suffered from. 



lo Rinconete and Cortadillo 

which he pronounces dropsy, and past the skill of any- 
one to cure. Cervantes recognizes he is doomed, and 
with a few words tliat go straight to the heart, spurs 
on his horse, upon the road. 

You will perceive, oh discreet reader, that so far I 
have used Cervantes, to approach you warily, for I 
too fear what sly and stiff-starched men may say. 
Thus you will see a Mexican vaquero walk up in a 
corral, towards a half tame horse, seeming not to look 
at him, till he is near enough to put the end of the 
mecate over his withers and then slipping it up to- 
wards his ears, catch hold of it below his neck; and 
then the trick is done. 

There comes a time at which even a man who writes 
a preface, has to essay to look the reader in the face. 
The Exemplary Novels, so says their author, were so 
contrived, that there is none of them from which you 
cannot take some good example. 

He goes on to say, "the love-making that you will 
find in them is all so honest, so compassed round with 
reason and with Christian discourse, that any reader 
careless or careful may read it and be stirred to no 
bad thoughts." 

Tis well, and yet it seems to me that men of miUtary 
age used not, in my time, to have much use for love- 
making alloyed with Christian discourse. Few Wbmen 



Rinconete and Cortadillo ii 

either, I remember vaguely, seemed to care much for 
reason in the matter, but let that pass, I have no quarrel 
with Cervantes for his conclusion, for to confuse love- 
making with bad thoughts is Puritan and base. 

If Rinconete and Cortadillo has been translated into 
English or how many times, I do not know, nor shall I 
look the matter up in any dictionary, or in the pon- 
derous catalogues of the museum now closed for fear 
of many aerial attacks. 

What I do know is that an idiomatic version of a 
classic is never out of season, for there are turns and 
intricacies of the Spanish tongue, hard to present in 
English and still preserve their salt. The same applies 
to English and it will be an interesting experience to 
read the version of a Spanish classic done into Anglo- 
Saxon speech by a countryman of the immortal nov- 
elist, soldier and captive, who if report be true penned 
his best flights of fancy in a gaol. 

The little masterpiece gives perhaps the best sketch 
of Spanish low-life that has come down to us. It is, 
I think, more intimate than even Lazarillo de Tormes, 
truer to nature than Guzman de Alfarache, and merci- 
fully, not so dull as is La Picara Justina, and I suppose, 
because Cervantes says so, that it is exemplary. It 
certainly contains little, as far as I can see, of Christian 
discourse; but then Cervantes says (and he is right) 



12 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

"I know one is not aways in the churches, nor is one 
always occupied with business ... there are hours of 
recreation in which the afflicted spirit rests." Certainly 
Rinconete and Cortadillo is a work of recreation, and 
the afflicted spirit reading it may rest and smile at all 
the humors it contains. The meeting of the two 
vagrant boys, their entering into the confraternity of 
thieves, with the picture of the house in which dwelt 
Monipodio, the arch- thief of Seville, all are touched 
in as only Cervantes could touch in such scenes. He 
uses but few words and yet in the short sketch there 
are a dozen portraits which once read are as indelible 
in the mind's eye as is a picture of El Greco, nay as tlie 
heads in the Burial of the Conde de Orgaz. The 
description of the patio in which el Senor Monipodio 
gave audience to his adherents cannot be surpassed in 
paint. In many a house in Spain to-day there are such 
patios, with their brick floor and clean fresh-painted 
walls; the three legged bench, and the cracked water 
jar with a drinking cup balanced upon its mouth, the 
mat of bass fibre and the pot of basil, all are familiar 
objects to any one who knows a house upon the out- 
skirts of a Spanish town. The wooden chest, without 
a top, the image of Our Lady, badly executed (de mala 
estampa) and the esparto basket, with the little holy 
water stoup of earthenware, all still adorn such patio« 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 13 

in such towns. Only the foils and the cork bucklers 
have disappeared, and in their place a single barrelled 
gun, or a bent sword given by some bull-fighter, now 
hang from, the four nails from which Cervantes says 
the foils and bucklers hung. Into this patio come a 
strange company of bravos, harlots and of thieves. 
First comes an ancient lady who flops down upon her 
knees before the badly painted image of Our Lady; 
then two swash-bucklers, and next two "bonnets" 
dressed up as serious citizens, whose mission is to find 
out which houses are worth the while to rob. They 
all do homage to the great Monipodio, a thick-set man, 
of about five and forty, black-eyed and bearded, dressed 
in a cloak of baize that hung down to his heels. This 
worthy, girt with a short broad-sword, administered 
his justice after the fashion of a Moorish Cadi, admit- 
ting no reply to anything he said, and though of rustic 
bearing and unlettered, being obeyed quite as implicitly 
as if he had studied either at Salamanca or at Alcala. 
The two boys Rinconete and Cortadillo, who had pre- 
viously thought thieving was a trade (or art) free to 
mankind to practice without let, or hindrance, now 
were surprised to find it had its hierarchy and appren- 
ticeship exactly like all other ways of life. Two ladies 
of the town, one Cariharta and her friend La Escalanta, 
also appear, and one of them straight falls amoralising 



14 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

on love, a subject of which she had considerable ex- 
perience, for certainly her virtue was so easy that it 
could not have been a burden to her to carry it about. 
This, oh discreet Cervantophiles, is all I have to tell 
about the matter, and if you do not like what I have 
written, all I can say is, the remedy is yours, for as 
you are aware, snakes that come out into the high 
road, come out in order to be slain. 

R. B. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM 



INTRODUCTION 

Estimable reader: 

Before I let you pass on to read in the language of 
Shakespeare the novel of Cervantes which I have trans- 
lated, I feel strongly tempted to imitate the actors of 
the Greece of old, and, removing the mask of obscurity 
which at present hides my personality, take you into 
my confidence by telling you : "I am so and so." Only 
one fear prevents me from yielding to temptation, that 
my statements about my own self might be taken with 
a pinch of salt — not necessarily Attic. 

It is true that, in place of blowing my trumpet, I 
might have asked one of the gentlemen of high degree, 
or of several academic degrees, who honor me with 
their friendship, to enlighten you about my tmworthy 
person, but let me — after the fashion of Cervantes — 
tell you a story. 

When the MS. of the present translation was 
completed, I bethought myself of a Scottish baronet of 
my acquaintance who dabbles in promiscuous literature. 
The lettered baronet had favored me, while I was in 
that country, with the hospitality for which Scotland 
is deservedly famous, and on several occasions had 
evinced great interest in my welfare. And so, I wrote 

15 



i6 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

him as polite a note as I was able, asking his per- 
mission to send him my MS. for his criticisms and 
advice. 

A Spanish proverb says that "donde menos se piensa, 
salta la liebre," which is a more picturesque way of ex- 
pressing the fact that "the unexpected always happens." 
My baronet answered me in the following terms : 

"Dear Don Mariano : 

In reply to your note, I consider A's editorship of 
B's translation of Rinconete a sufficient guarantee of 
its excellence. A is a member of the Spanish Academy. 

I am 

Yours truly." 

Apart from the fact that A is not a member of the 
Spanish Academy, the baronet's note was "canny" 
enough for any Caledonian, though hardly sufficiently 
courteous for a man who has Spanish blood in his veins. 
His note, however, was beneficial in the extreme to me, 
for it caused me to make an important resolution, viz., 
to dispense with the editorship of any bespectacled and 
erudite scholar. And this, amiable reader, is another 
reason why I must remain in obscurity. . . .unless you 
find me out some other way. For I refuse to be made 
the frame of any professorial stalking-horse behind 
whose cover some fool may shoot the dum-dum bullets 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 17 

of his ignorance at any honest toiler who ventures into 
the field of Cervantine study. 

If anyone should feel — ^you perhaps, oh reader! — 
that my translation could be easily improved, and I 
have not the slightest doubt that there is ample room 
for improvement, let him by all means make the im- 
provements, and from no one will he receive more 
hearty applause than from this, his humble servant. 
For in translating Rinconete and Cortadillo, I seek not 
fame nor wealth, being perfectly aware as I am, that 
neither falls to the lot of the translator. I have under- 
taken the task with the praiseworthy inention of of- 
fering to the English-reading public a tolerable ren- 
dering of Cervantes* best Exemplary Novel. 

When the Ingenious Knight of La Mancha visited 
the printer's shop at Barcelona, he expressed his views 
on translations generally, comparing them with the re- 
verse side of a tapestry where the figures of the face 
are indistinctly discerned, covered as they are with a 
tangle of threads. Who knows but that Cervantes had 
a premonition that his marvellous tapestries would be 
exhibited wrongside foremost to an expectant public? 
Perhaps he did ; for in his lifetime, though fickle For- 
tune denied him the enjoyment of wordly goods, he 
tasted of the bitter fruits of celebrity. He found he 



i8 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

had imitators and, naturally, he must have assumed 
that he would have translators. 

Cervantes — except, perhaps, in, his Don Quixote — 
has fared badly at the hands of his English exponents. 
No American, as far as I am aware, has ever honored 
himself by translating him. 

James Mabbie, under the pseudonym of "Don Diego 
Puede-Ser," published, in 1640, a translation of six of 
the Novels which, however, did not include Rinconete 
and Cortadillo. His translation was qualified by God- 
win as ''perhaps the most perfect specimen of prose in 
the English language," which statement goes to show 
that the phlegmatic Anglo-Saxon is as subject to 
hysterics as the more highly strung Latin ; for Mabbie's 
translation is anything but excellent. 

Twelve years later, "R. C, Gent." — we will take his 
word for it — surpassed Mabbie's excellence .... by not 
translating at all, and, having woven in his fertile 
imagination some worthless yams, dubbed them ''The 
Troublesome and Hard Adventures in Love. A Work 
very Delightfull and Acceptable to All. Written in 
Spanish by that Excellent and Famous Gentleman, 
Michael Cervantes ; and exactly translated into English, 
by R. C, Gent." 

Both Mabbie and "R. C." —let us not forget the 
"Gent."— had imitators, for some attempted to trans- 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 19 

late, and others saved themselves the trouble; but the 
first to translate all of the Exemplary Novels into 
English was Walter Keating Kelly who published them 
in 1846, and reprinted tliem — with the addition oi La 
Tia Fingida, of unknown authorship, and El Buscapie, 
known not to have come from Cerv^antes at all — in 

1855. 

W. K. Kelly fully deserves the Italian dictum of 
"Traduttore traditore." He began by using a corrupt 
text for his translation, and, perhaps because he 
feared the inaccuracy of his text, suppressed, changed, 
and added ad libitum, ^.nd, finally, couched his version 
in phrases so widely divergent from those of Cervantes 
that his work has deservedly received the most emphat- 
ic condemnation of such a complacent critic as Mr. 
James Fitzmaurice-Kelly. 

For almost half a century W. K. Kelly held the field, 
and then, in 1902, appeared a new English version of 
the complete Novels by Norman MacColl. His trans- 
lation was edited by Mr. James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, who, 
in a very interesting introduction, bestowed on it the 
most extravagant praise. "Mr. MacColl, as a matter 
of course," said Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, "has adopted 
the only sound plan in such undertakings (transla- 
tions) : though the editio princeps of 1613 (sic) has 
never been reprinted .... he has taken it as the basis 



20 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

of his rendering. . . .Mr. MacColl, then, starts with the 
same superiority over all other translators of the 
N ovelas ex emplar esthdit Mr. Ormsby has over all other 
translators of Don Quixote: while not despising the 
light thrown on defective passages by other editions, 
both are alone in choosing an authentic text on scientific 
princip'les, and keeping to it as closely as the genius 
of our speech allows. To render Cervantes's text as 
he wrote it, without either additions or suppressions, is 
in itself an exceeding merit. And there is another point 
upon which stress should be laid. It is an almost in- 
credible fact — but a fact none the less, and one highly 
discreditable to Cervantes's professed admirers in 
Spain and out of it — that there exists no annotated 
edition of the N ovelas, and consequently the translator 
of these stories is at an immense disadvantage as com- 
pared with the translator of Don Quixote. He has no 
convenient, patient Clemencin who will submit to be 
alternately plundered and derided, who will explain the 
intrinsic difficulties of the text, the countless odd ex- 
pressions, the thousand and one obcure allusions, the 
numerous obsolete slang words which perplex and 
often baffle the best native scholars of Spain. He must 
solve all his puzzles alone and unaided. All the more, 
therefore, is Mr. MacColl to be congratulated on his 
very successful achievement. His rendering of Cer- 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 21 

vantes's verse (and this would have pleased the author 
more than all the rest) is singularly happy ; his transla- 
tion of the prose is vivid, fluent, almost invariably 
faithful to the letter and the spirit; his notes are suffi- 
cient and to the point. To say that his is by far the 
best version of the Novelas exemplares in the English 
language is to say too little ; it is one of the best transla- 
tions made from the Spanish in our time. And those 
who are acquainted with the work of Trench, Fitz- 
Gerald, Ormisby, Gibson, and Mir. Symons, will know 
that this is high praise." 

A Daniel come to judgment ! yea, a Daniel ! 

The above is high praise indeed, coming from the pen 
of such an authority as Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly. It is 
so high that the worthy editor might have saved him- 
self a deal of trouble, if instead of writing the para- 
graphs quoted, he had printed as a colophon to Norman 
MacColFs translation the Pillars of Hercules and the 
motto "Nee plus ultra," for, after all, that is what he 
meant. 

Unfortunately, however, there is not the slightest 
foundation for the encomium which Mr. Fitzmaurice- 
Kelly heaped on Norman MacG)irs version, and I 
regret that it should have fallen to my lot to have to 
say so. Norman MacColl did use the editio princeps, 
but he made a very poor use of it, and his translation 



22 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

is hardly better than that of his predecessor W. K. 
Kelly. 

To any one acquainted with both Spanish and 
English,. Norman MacColl's version discloses the fol- 
lowing facts : that he had a very imperfect knowledge 
of Spanish; that his acquaintance with the Spain of 
Cervantes was extremely superficial; that his English 
— as regards both grammar and style — was very poor 
indeed ; and that he was extremely careless in the per- 
formance of his self-imposed task. 

As I am not, as yet, a recognized authority on 
these matters, and as I neither want nor expect any one 
to take my bare word for them, I shall substantiate my 
statements with examples culled from Rinconete and 
Cortadillo. 

Referring to the shoes worn by one of the boys, Nor- 
man McColl styles them "rotten" instead of "fancy." 
The "bag" carried by one of the boys becomes a 
^'sleeve." The "Walloon collar" is turned into a 
"starched Walloon" and, later on, the playing cards, 
from being carried in the "collar," are transferred to 
the "neck" of the boy. Cortado's father, from being a 
"hosier" is transformed into a "cobbler." The "mules" 
on which the travellers take the boys to Seville are 
changed into "horses." Cortado is made to say "shoul- 
ders" instead of "back." Old Pipota is called a "beggar 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 23 

woman" in lieu of an "old woman in flowing robes" and 
the two blackguards who followed her are termed 
"stout" in place of "handsome." For "appeasing their 
hunger" Norman MacCoU says "cutting short their 
anger." And so on — ad nauseam. 

Norman MacColl did not know what "medias cal- 
zas," "medios mantos," and "gente de barrio" meant, 
thereby showing that he was imperfectly acquainted 
with the Spain of Cervantes, 

As a sample of Norman MacCoU's lucid and gram- 
matical English, the following phrase will do very 
nicely : "So and so, son of so and so, native of such and 
such a place, such a day they hanged them or flogged 
them." 

His carelessness will be fully demonstrated by the 
following examples. In translating the phrase "gente 
de barrio" in Rinconete and Cortadillo, Norman 
MacColl forgot that Cervantes himself had explained 
the obscure sentence in his novel of El Celeso Estre- 
meno — which he translated at the same time — and, 
drawing on his imagination, rendered it by "quite 
plainly dressed," thereby giving it a meaning diametri- 
cally opposed to its real one. Again, although he men- 
tions in the first page of his Rinconete and Cortadillo 
that the playing cards were carried in a "collar," two 
pages further on he forgot that "cuello" means "collar" 



24 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

and says that the boy carried the cards "at his neck," 
instead of "in the collar/' This, Mr. Fitzmurice-Kelly 
would have us believe, is translating "on scientific 
principles." 

The notes to Norman MacColl's version are quite in 
keeping with it, Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly to the contrary 
notwithstanding. In over a quarter of them, he follows 
the extremely aggravating practice of referring the 
reader to some other book. In one note he is rather 
cautious and explains the allusion to a bride's hand- 
kerchief as "A reference to a custom at Spanish wed- 
dings." In another he makes the inconceivable blunder 
of thinking that when Cervantes wrote Teba he meant 
Thebes. 

Much has been said by the critics about Cervantes' 
short-comings as a poet, and some of them have dealt 
rather harshly with the immortal author of Don Quix- 
ote, but the unkindest cut of all is Mr. Fitzmaurice- 
Kelly's assertion that Norman MacColFs rendering of 
the verses in the Exemplary Novels "would have 
pleased the author." As a sample of such renderings 
— Rinconete and Cortadillo has hardly any verses — I 
quote the following from La Gitanilla : 

"When Preciosa on the timbrel plays. 

And the light airs are pierced by the sound, 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 25 

Pearls be they truly that she flings around, 
And flowers she scatters with the hand of fays. 
The soul is prisoner, prudence captive stays. 
For by her magic feats it feels spell-bound. 
And honest hearts and sober minds are found 
Her fame extolling 'bove th' heavenly ways. 

By hair draw^n upwards slender as a wire, 
A thousand souls she raises ; at her feet 
Love lays his golden and his leaden dart. 

With her two suns he'll blind, or fire the soul. 
And for her exercise dominion sweet ; 

And still more greatness doth suspect the heart." 

It passes my comprehension how a countryman of 
Shakespeare and Milton — and a literary critic withal 
— could say that those miserable lines would please any 
one . . . even a poetaster such as Cervantes! 

To a certain extent there is no truth in Mr. Fitz- 
maurice-Kelly's statement that Norman MacColl "had 
no patient Clemencin, etc." Had Norman MacG)ll 
read Clemencin's notes to Don Quixote, he would not 
have tranlated "Boorish science" where Cervantes 
wrote "science of Vilhan," meaning the art of playing 
cards ; for Clemencin has a rather lengthy note on the 
subject, and refers his reader to Rinconete and Corta- 
dillo. So that, after all, Norman MacColl did have 



26 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

Clemencin but did not choose to avail himself of his 
assistance. 

In view of the foregoing indisputable facts, Mr. 
Fitzmaurice-Kelly's encomiastic harangue on behalf of 
Norman AlacColl's translation, instead of the sober 
judgment of a literary critic, becomes more like the in- 
flated peroration of a circus manager introducing a 
highly civilized gorilla to an open-mouthed audience. 

The best that could have been said about Norman 
MacColl's translation is what the translator himself 
expressed in his own succinct prefatory note : 

'T am much indebted to Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly and 
M. Morel-Fatio for the readiness with which they have 
answered my questions, and the valuable assistance 
they have given me in difficult passages. I am also 
under great obligations to the publishers of this edition 
(Gowans & Gray, Glasgow, Feb. 1902). Mr. Gowans 
has devoted much time and unremitting care to the 
correction of the proofs, and his admirable knowledge 
of Spanish has enabled him to point out many erro- 
neous renderings. When so much has been success- 
fully questioned, one's confidence in what remains is 
naturally shaken." 

But Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly overreached himself in 
lauding his friend's work. Such excellence as he 
claims for it is altogether superhuman and he has done 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 2.J 

but little favor to his protege, although his intentions 
were above reproach. 

It is deplorable that Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly should 
have seen fit to forget that he is a critic, and that a 
critic owes it to his readers not to permit Friendship to 
tamper with the balance in which he weighs literary 
wares. Highly deplorable to me, for it has forced me to 
the distasteful task of exposing the blunders of Nor- 
man MacColl, a man for whose memory I have nothing 
but the greatest esteem. He did his best, and that is 
all we can expect, or are entitled to expect from any 
man. 

The mediocrity of Norman MacColl's translation 
coupled with Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly's fantastic praise 
of it moved me to attempt the performance of some- 
thing better. 

I will not speak of the almost insuperable obstacles 
which barred my way to an accurate rendering of 
Cervantes' little masterpiece. The uninitiated would 
not understand me, while, on the other hand, the 
scholars require no jeremiades to appreciate my dif- 
ficulties. As for the "sly and stiff starched fellows" — 
the critics — who find fault with my version, I might 
imitate the illustrious Cervantist, Sr. Rodriguez 
Marin, by saying that there are several other works of 
Cervantes on which they might try their supernatural 



28 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

powers, but I would rather tell them that they can go 
ahead and prove their mettle by improving my transla- 
tion, and that I wish them "godspeed" with all my 
heart. 

How far my translation has fallen short of the mark 
which I set myself when I began my work, no one 
knows better than I do. Yet, kind-hearted reader, do 
not waste any pity on my poor self ; for I feel satisfied 
that my translation is by far the most accurate that has 
ever appeared in English, and I am proud of the fact 
that such a translation has been done by a Spaniard. 
My countrymen — and the world at large — owe much 
to the famous author of Don Quixote, and, though the 
work of interpreting his novel to the English-reading 
public has proved ajrduous in the extreme, my labor 
has been considerably lightened by the thought that I 
was privileged enough to repay — even in an infinites- 
imal measure — my part of 'he debt. 

Having explained the rv d'etre of my translation, 
the time is ripe to talk about the original, and although 
I have been prevented from carrying out, to any 
extent, research work of my own, I trust I will be able 
to throw some light on the novel of Rinconete and 
Cortadillo. 

The very earliest mention of Rinconete and Corta- 
dillo occurs in Chapter xlvii of Don Quixote, 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 29 

Part I. When the unfortunate Knight of the Sorrow- 
ful Countenance was being carried away from the 
famous inn where Maritones made herself generally 
useful to the guests : "The landlord approached the 
priest and handed him some papers, saying that he had 
discovered them in the lining of the hand bag where he 
had found the novel of 'El Curioso Impertinente' and, 
as their owner had never come back to the inn, he could 
take them all away ; for himself was unable to read and 
did not want them. The priest thanked him, and, look- 
ing them over, saw that at the begining of the MS. it 
said : 'Novel of Rinconete and Cortadillo. ' " 

It is evident, therefore, that Rinconete and Corta- 
dillo was written before the first part of Don 
Quixote had been finished, and on this all critics are 
agreed. But, apart from this evidence furnished by 
Cervantes himself, Don Firancisco Rodriguez Marin 
in his most excellent critical edition of Rinconete and 
Cortadillo, has called attention to the similarity of 
certain expressions in Rinconete and Cortadillo and 
in the first part of Don Quixote. Similarities of 
the same kind occur in Persiles and Sigismunda and in 
the second part of Don Quixote, which are posi- 
tively known to have been written simultaneously and, 
hence, Don Francisco Rodriguez Marin infers that 
Rinconete and Cortadillo and the first part of Don 



30 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

Quixote must also have been penned at about the same 
time. 

With these facts in view, I make bold to assert— 
and may the supercilious forgive me for it — that Rin- 
conete and Cortadillo was written between Chapter 
XXXII and xlvii of the first part of Don Quixote; 
and I base my opinion on the curious behaviour of the 
already mentioned innkeeper. 

Clemencin, who in his famous Commentary dealt so 
harshly with Cervantes, did not notice — at least, 
omitted to mention — the glaring contradiction in the 
conduct of the innkeeper and, to my knowledge, no 
one else remarked upon it. 

In Chapter xxxii of the first part of Don Quix- 
ote, at the post-prandial dissertation on books of Knight 
Errantry which took place at the inn, the landlord 
mentioned that a guest of his had left a hand bag con- 
taining a few books of Chivalry and some papers, and 
that during harvest time there was always some reaper 
who could read, to the great edification of the company. 
The priest having expressed a desire to see the books, 
the landlord produced the bag and gave him the books 
and MS. "which was written in a very good hand." 
The latter proved to be the novel oi El Curioso Im- 
pertinente. The priest, greatly incensed at all books 
of Chivalry, wanted to burn the volumes, to the indig- 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 31 

nation of mine host, who prevented him from carrying 
out his nefarious intention, but, his curiosity having 
been aroused by a perusal of the MS., he asked the 
landlord to let him have it. To which the innkeeper 
made answer: "Well may your reverence read it; for 
I must let you know that gome of my guests, who have 
read it here, have been highly pleased with it and have 
earnestly begged me to give it to them; but I always 
refused to let them take it as I intend to return it to him 
who left the hand hag forgotten here with those hooks 
and those papers. It may well he that their rightful 
owner may turn up in course of time, and although I 
know I shall sorely miss them, faith, I shall return 
them to him; for, though an innkeeper, I am still a 
Christian.'' 

As we have already seen, in Chapter xlvii of the 
first part of Don Quixote, the worthy innkeeper 
threw his Christianity to the winds without the slight- 
est excuse and, although the priest did not ask — far 
less entreat — for it, he handed him the priceless MS. 
of Rinconete and Cortadillo. 

What is the meaning of this apparently inexplicable 
contradiction ? Simply this : that Cervantes, who never 
was very careful in the composition of his works but 
never missed an opportunity of mentioning them, had 
not written Rinconete and Cortadillo when he pen- 



32 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

ned Chapter xxxii, but that by the time he arrived at 
Chapter xlvii of the first part of Don Qiiixote he 
had already conceived and put in black and white his 
little masterpiece. 

There can be no question, therefore, as to the com- 
parative time in which Rinconete and Cortadillo was 
written. It is contemporaneous with the first part of 
Don Quixote. But there is a question, in spite of 
all the critics, as to the time when the latter work was 
written. 

Mr, Fitzmaurice-Kelly, in his "Chapters on Spanish 
Literature," expressed the opinion that the first part 
of Don Quixote was not finished till "just before 
Cervantes' departure to Valladolid at the begining of 
1603..". He asserts that "Lope de Vega was con- 
stantly in Seville from 1600 to 1604" and that "Cer- 
vantes wrote a complimentary sonnet for the edition 
of the Dragontea issued by Lope in 1602," and he 
infers that the two writers must have been on friendly 
terms at that date, and that "it is therefore incredible 
that Cervantes had written — or even contemplated 
Writing — the sharp attack on Lope in the forty-seventh 
chapter of Don Quixote. In the year 1602 Cervan- 
tes and Lope must have fallen out, and Cervantes then 
wrote the chapter in question, and therefore, the first 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 33 

part of Don Quixote was not finished till the end of 
that year. Q. E. D. 

To begin with, the forty-seventh chapter contains 
nothing whatsoever which might have been suspected 
of being an attack upon Lope. It undoubtedly must be 
the forty-eighth chapter he means, for therein appears 
an acrimonious criticism of the Spanish theatre, which 
is what Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly has taken as an attack 
on Lope de Vega. 

There is among the critics — as it appears to me — a 
decided tendency to magnify molehills into mountains 
when they come to consider the unfriendly relations of 
famous men. A case in point is that of the celebrated 
New Englander George Ticknor when commenting on 
the spurious second part of Don Quixote. Refer- 
ring to Cervantes' declaration that his immortal work 
was conceived in a gaol, "Avellaneda says the same 
thing in his preface," comments Ticknor in a foot-note, 
"but says it contemptuously : Pero disculpan los yerros 
de su Primera Parte en esta materia, el haberse escrito 
entre los de una carcel, etc. (the italics are Ticknor's.) 
A base insinuation seems implied in the use of the re- 
lative article los." There is nothing of the kind. 
Avellaneda merely perpetrated a miserable pun, for 
the "los" stands for "hierros," which is pronounced the 
same as "yerros." But Ticknor knew that Avellaneda 



34 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

was Cervantes* foe, and therefore, everything the for- 
mer said must be derogatory to the latter. 

Something similar happens to Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly. 

There is no doubt that the friendship which united 
Lope de Vega and Cervantes came to end in the early 
years of the seventeenth century. But if we know this 
to be a fact, it is not through Cervantes, but through 
Lope. Cervantes, as far as I am aware, never censured 
Lope openly, whereas Lope did cast aspersions on Cer- 
vantes, deliberately naming him, incidentally dem- 
onstrating that a man of genius may, on occasion, be a 
confoimded ass, for did he not say that there would 
be no one fooHsh enough to praise Don Quixote? 

Don Francisco Rodriguez Marin is satisfied that 
Cervantes alluded to Lope in the verses of Urganda and 
in the Prologue of the first part of Don Quixote 
and Clemencin and Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly are equally 
sure that the forty-eighth chapter of the same book is 
a criticism of Lope. Sr. Rodriguez Marin, I think, is 
right, but Clemencin and Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly are, 
in my opinion, decidedly wrong. 

It is admitted by all that Lope's Comedias, though 
infinitely superior to anything that had appeared on the 
Spanish boards, were marred by the same faults from 
which their predecessors and contemporaries sufi?ered, 
so that, even although Cervantes' remarks could be 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 35 

applied to Lope, they were yet more applicable to all 
other dramatists, including Cervantes himself. The 
cap fitted Lope perfectly, but, obviously, that was 
Lope's fault. There is something else in the same chap- 
ter which shows conclusively that the severe criticisms 
were far from being intended solely for Lope's benefit. 
Tliere is high praise, and lavished with the generosity 
which was characteristic of Cervantes, and the praise 
is all for Lope. For, though Lope is never mentioned 
by name, it is almost impossible to mistake the identity 
of the "ingenio de esta corte" of whom Cervantes 
speaks so encomiastically. 

Clemencin was uncharitable enough to imagine that 
this unlimited praise was only a ruse of Cervantes to 
appease Lope and his admirers ! Which is tantamount 
to saying that Cervantes was an idiot ; for what would 
have been the use of attacking Lope in such a way that 
he would not feel the attack? I for one, refuse to be- 
lieve that the hero of Lepanto and the no less heroic 
captive of Algiers was either a fool or a knave. 

If we remember that Cervantes had been an unsuc- 
cessful dramatist; that but a short time previous to 
the pubHcation of his Don Quixote he had made a 
contract to write several plays of which no one has ever 
heard anything to this day, probably because the actor 
manager refused to accept them, and that in the chap- 



36 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

ter in question he says by the mouth of the priest: 

"Your worship has touched upon a subject 

(plays) which has awakened in me an old grudge 
against the comedies which are represented nowadays" ; 
if we bear all this in mind, we will easily per- 
ceive that Cervantes unburdened his bosom, not against 
any one individual in particular, but against a whole 
system or school. And, if I should be right in my in- 
terpretation, it follows that the forty-eighth chapter of 
the first part of Don Quixote is of little — if any — 
chronological value to determine when the first part 
of Don Quixote — and, consequently, Rinconete and 
Cortadillo — was written. That chapter might very 
well have been written before Cervantes gave Lope the 
eulogistic sonnet for the Dragontea. The Dragon- 
tea, as well as the Hermosura de Angelica, the 
Arcadia and the Isidro, praised in the sonnet, are 
not dramatic pieces, and there would be no inconsist- 
ency in eulogizing them even after berating the come- 
dies. 

In the very interesting critical edition already men- 
tioned, Don Francisco Rodriguez Marin states that such 
authorities as Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, Don Ramon 
Leon Mainez and Sr. Cortejon are of opinion that Cer- 
vantes must have been, in gaol — for the second time — 
in 1601, or more likely, in 1602. This opinion is based 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 37 

on the facts that "as in 1597 the Licenciate Caspar de 
Vallejo set Cervantes free, and as there is a reference 
in a report of the accountants (Valladolid, 24th of 
January 1603) to the effect that Sr. Bernabe de Pe- 
droso, purveyor general to the fleet, had been ordered 
'to release him (Cervantes) from the gaol where he was 
in Seville'; provided that he should promise, under 
bond, to appear, in a certain period of time, to render 
an: account of the balance against him which had been 
verified in 1601, it is evident that he was imprisoned 
again in that city in 1601 or 1602." 

Sr. Rodriguez Marin goes on to say that, as the im- 
mortal Don Quixote was conceived in a gaol and that 
as the Sevillian penitentiary, of all those where the 
great genius had pined, was the only one worthy of 
that name, it follows that Don Qmxote was com- 
posed in the gaol of Seville, and in the year 1601 or 
1602. 

I am unable to follow Sr. Rodriguez Marin to the 
conclusions which to him are so evident, and it may 
be that the fault is entirely mine, but from the evidence 
before me, I am inclined to believe that Don Quixote 
was conceived, not in 1601 or 1602 but in 1595, that is 
to say, the first time that Cervantes was locked up in 
what Sr. Rodriguez Marin calls "a branch office of 
Hell." 



38 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

When, through the failure of the merchant Simon 
Freire de Lima, Cervantes was unable to pay into the 
treasury certain sums he had collected as taxes, and 
which he had entrusted to the merchant, the unfor- 
tunate writer was confined in the gaol at Seville by 
royal warrant of the 6th. of September 1597. To 
enable Cervantes to repair to Madrid and render an 
account of his collections, bail was fixed at a sum which 
proved prohibitive to the flaccid pockets of the unhappy 
tax gatherer. He remonstrated, and bail was forth- 
with lowered to an amount equal to the balance against 
him, namely, two-thousand six-himdred and forty-one 
reales. Accordingly, by another royal warrant issued 
the first of December of the same year, Cervantes was 
liberated after having furnished bond, and with the 
understanding that he was to present himself at the 
court within a short time, failing which his bondsmen 
would have to settle the account. But Cervantes did 
not go to Madrid and Sr. Rodriguez Marin says: 
"Why should he, until he had money to pay the debt?" 
Nothing else is known about this affair, except the 
above mentioned report. 

We should carefully note that Cervantes does not 
seem to have had any difficulty in furnishing bond, as 
indeed he did not have any on several subsequent 
occasions when he required it. Evidently he had some 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 39 

very good friend, or friends, in Seville, probably one 
Tomas Gutierrez in whose house he lodged. 

We should also bear in mind that Cervantes did not 
bother himself about journeying to Madrid. Sr. Rodri- 
guez Marin suggests lack of funds as an excuse. 

Little or nothing is known about Cervantes* doings 
till he appears in Valladolid early in 1603. Mr. F'itz- 
maurice-Kelly surmises that he must have been busy 
writing in some "naked garret," for, of course, who is 
the great writer who did not write, at some time or 
other, in a naked garret? However, if I may use my 
own imagination, I should imagine that a "naked gar- 
ret" would truly be a very scarce commodity in 
Seville. 

Be that as it may, there is reason to believe that 
Cervantes' fortunes had improved during his last two 
years residence in Seville. Supposing that the account- 
ant's report referred to recent happenings, and that 
Cervantes had been imprisoned in the Sevillian gaol a 
second time, he was liberated on condition that he 
would appear at the court in a short time, and he did 
go to Valladolid towards the end of 1602, or the first 
month of 1603. It is evident that Cervantes furnished 
bond before he left the gaol, and not only was he able 
to do this but, moreover, he found somewhere the 
actual hard cash wherewith to effect the journey to 



40 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

Valladolid. This is more than he was able to do the 
first time he was imprisoned, and therefore, there is 
no reason to assume that he was in gaol for any pro- 
tracted period, at any rate not any longer than the 
first time, which was only three months. This is al- 
together too short a time in which to have written the 
first part of Don Quixote and Rinconete and Cort- 
adillo and, perhaps, some other pieces. From internal 
evidence it is clear that the first part of Don Quix- 
ote was written at different intervals of time, and it is 
more than reasonable to suppose that it took Cervantes 
more than three months to complete it, especially as he 
was not a gentleman of leisure and must have been 
rather busy keeping the wolf from the door. 

Again, if as Sr. Rodriguez Marin points out, Cer- 
vantes himself handed to the Liceiaciate Porras de la 
Camara a copy of Rinconete and Cortadillo, which, 
as I have shown, must have been written between 
Chapters xxxii and xlvii of the First Part of Don 
Quixote, it seems to me improbable that he should 
have done so just as he was about to leave Seville. It 
is more likely that Cervantes tried to ingratiate himself 
with the Licenciate while he had no intention of leaving 
that city. 

My own conclusions are, that whether or not Cervan- 
tes was imprisoned a second time in Seville, the first 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 41 

part of Don Quixote was conceived or planned in 
the gaol of Seville during the last months of 1597; 
that in the following years, and previous to his depar- 
ture for Valladolid, he continued to work on his Don 
Quixote, and wrote Rinconete and Cortadillo, and El 
Celoso Estremeno, copies of which he gave the Licen- 
ciate Porras de la Camara, and that with the in- 
valuable MSS. he left the city of the Guadalquivir and 
went to that of the Pisuetrga and the Esgueva. It is 
clear to me that — rather than in answer to judicial 
summons — he repaired to the court because he must 
have had some new interests therein. Otherwise, why 
did he fdllow the court to Madrid as soon as it was 
removed thither? 

So much as to the date and place when and where 
Rinconete and Cortadillo was written. 

Rinconete and Cortadillo first appeared in print in 
the Exemplary Novels published at Madrid by Juan 
de la Cuesta in 1613. It occupies the third place in the 
collection. 

The editio prince ps, like the first edition of Don 
Quixote, which came also from the press of Juan de 
la Cuesta, contains innumerable errata. It was fol- 
lowed the next year by an edition purporting to come 
from the same press as the first edition, but which now 
most critics hold to have been spurious, and is generally 



42 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

attributed to Antonio Alvarez, who had his press in 
Lisbon. 

The Portuguese edition considerably improved the 
princeps for, not only were typographical errors elim- 
inated almost entirely, but suppressions and additions 
were carried out in several places with so much skill as 
to lead the critics to the belief that Cervantes himself 
made the corrections. I will not dispute the fact, but 
it is exceedingly puzzling that Cervantes should have 
corrected the first edition, and allowed such improve- 
ments to fall into fraudulent hands. Besides, though 
Cervantes, and no one else, could have written Don 
Quixote and the Exemplary Novels, it does not 
require a genius to correct the mistakes which he re- 
peatedly made in his works. A Clemencin could do 
that. 

The two editions I have mentioned, were closely 
followed by several others published Jiot only in Spain 
but in foreign countries, till now it would be a hard 
task to catalogue them all. 

As if the divergent texts of the 1613 and 1614 edit- 
ions were not enough to keep the critics and students 
busy, the Librarian Don Isidoro Bosarte discovered and 
published in 1788 the text of a draught which the Li- 
cenciate Porras de la Camara made for the delectation 
of the Archbishop of Seville, the Cardinal Nino de 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 43 

Guevara, early in the seventeenth century. The 
draught, besides Rinconete and Cortadillo, contained 
El Celoso Estremeno, one of the Exemplary Novels, 
and La Tia Fingida, a story of uncertain author- 
ship which had been attributed to Cervantes by some 
critics. 

The text of Rinconete and Cortadillo published by 
Bosarte differs widely in many passages from that of 
the editio prince ps and, though some of the variants 
must undoubtedly be attributed to Cervantes himself, 
it is safe to assume that the worthy Lincenciate must 
be held responsible for a good many of the changes. 

Porras de la Camara was an acomplished litterateur 
who was perfectly conscious of his abilities. So much 
so that, at least on one occasion, he rewrote and "im- 
proved" some one else's work. It is only natural, that 
while he was transcribing Cervantes' novels, he should 
have felt inclined to effect some "improvements." His 
text, though extremely interesting, does not throw 
much light on the one published by Cervantes, except 
in two important points. 

In the title to Porras de la Camara's text the year is 
mentioned when Rinconete and his friend Cortadillo 
flourished in Seville, namely 1569. The Licenciate, 
however, must have made a mistake in copying the 
date ; for by reference to El Coloquio de Cipion y Ber 



44 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

ganza — another one of the Exemplary Novels — Sr. 
Rodriguez Marin has shown that the correct date 
must be 1589. 

Again, Porras de la Camara's text, when compared 
with that of the editio princeps, makes it clear that Cer- 
vantes must have written Rinconete and Cortadillo 
in Seville ; for, whereas in the former we read "coming 
from Castile to Andalusia;" in the latter the direction is 
reversed and Cervantes says : ''going from Castile to 
Andalusia,'' showing that when Cervantes wrote Rin- 
conete and Cortadillo he was in Andalusia and when 
he revised his MS. for the press he was already in Cas- 
tile. 

Much has been said about the appropriateness of en- 
titling the novels "Exemplary." "I have dubbed them 
Exemplary," says Cervantes, "and if you look well into 
it, there is not one from which you could not derive a 
profitable example." But — in spite of Cervantes* words 
— it would be difficult to derive a profitable moral ex- 
ample from Rinconete and Cortadillo. Yet, of all 
the Exemplary Novels, none has a better right to the 
appelation of "exemplary." It is indeed "exemplary" 
in the sense of being a "model"; for nothing of its 
kind has ever been written which surpasses it. It is 
a most finished example of realistic literature, a won- 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 45 

derful pen picture, pre-raphaelistic in its details, fault- 
less in its vivid coloring. 

In Rinconete and Cortadillo Cervantes portrays a 
brotherhood of Sevillian thieves, and although the 
members of the gang are all steeped in vice, so master- 
ful and delicate are the strokes of his pen, that the 
characters, so far from being repulsive, become highly 
attractive. Yet, they are perfectly true to life. 

Ticknor, who was but imperfectly acquainted with 
Seville, was so impressed with the realism of Rin- 
conete and Cortadillo that he felt sure Cervantes must 
have written it in Seville. And Sr. Rodriguez Marin, 
than whom no one knows Seville better, has collected 
a mass of irrefutable evidence which proves that Cer- 
vantes was throughly familiar with Seville, its people 
and their manners and language, and that every detail 
and turn of speech in Rinconete and Cortadillo could 
not have been more faithfully recorded by the camera 
or the phonograph. 

Sir Walter Scott once told Lockhart that the reading 
of the Exemplary Novels aroused in him the ambition 
of becoming a novelist. Because of this, Mr. Fitz- 
maurice-Kelly has stated that Scott imitated Cervantes 
in the description of Alsatia in The Fortunes of 
Nigel, which is obviously suggested by Rinconete and 
Cortadillo. Such may have been the case, but I 



46 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

strongly doubt it. The inhabitants of Alsatia differed 
from the Sevillian troupe as night differs from day. 
The Alsatians were a tribe of outcasts, confined to a 
particular quarter of the town, where they lived with 
the knowledge and consent of the authorities, who 
left them unmolested. If we are to believe the Laird 
of Abbots ford, they were a conglomeration of renega- 
does, gamesters, thieves and murderers, devoid of all 
religion, philosophy or any common interest, who hung 
together because otherwise they would be hanged sepa- 
rately. Their one aim in life was to keep away from 
the gallows, and to satisfy their brutal appetites. What 
few laws they had worked mainly to the benefit of the 
self-styled "Duke" Jacob Hildebrod and his senate. 
The "Duke" was an ignoble character devoid of any 
graces which might have counterbalanced his inordinate 
lust for money, and his unquenchable thirst for wine 
and ale. 

The worthy Monipodio and his "children" were peo- 
ple of a different race. They were by no means or- 
dinary criminals. They w^ere not penned into aJiy 
particular district, and although the police v/ere Bof 
supposed to countenance them at all, and this regard 
for appearances is really more Anglo-Saxon than 
Spanish, they roamed Seville at will. They, indivi- 
dually, had no one vice in particular, but shared them 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 47 

all in so far as they contributed to la joie de vivre. 
They drank, without becoming drunkards; they ate, 
without turning gluttons; they must perforce have 
mfusic and poetry at their feasts. Their crimes were 
of a most impersonal nature, for seldom, if ever, was 
one perpetrated for the exclusive benefit of one of the 
members of the brotherhood, and as this incentive was 
lacking, their "jobs" were cleanly and cleverly execu- 
ted, albeit sometimes they made mistakes, being free 
from the brutality which often characterises the infrac- 
tions of the law committed by one single individual, act- 
ing solely on his own impulses. Moreover, they car- 
ried out their crimes on commission as agents for co- 
wardly, though no doubt, respectable church-going 
citizens of Seville, who dared not do their own dirty 
work. Their laws and regulations were democratic in 
the extreme, and barring the absolute, but far from 
despotic authority of Monipodio, recognised no favor- 
ites. In dress they were cleanly and picturesque, and 
in carriage and manners displayed a certain nobility 
which was not aped, but perfectly natural. Hypo- 
critical as their religion may appear at first sight, it was 
far from being so. Their distorted minds cannot be 
held responsible for their failure to perceive that their 
liA^es belied the tenets of the Christianity which they 
professed, so that we should not question old Pipota's 



48 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

sincerity when she used to kneel down before the image, 
and deposited the ill-gotten alms into the box. 

When Don Benito Perez Galdds, the greatest of 
modern Spanish novelists, was gathering materials for 
his novel Misericordia, he made a thorough inspection 
of the slums of Madrid. He had previously visited 
Whitechapel, and other hotbeds of wretchedness in the 
British metropolis. Comparing the two in a preface to 
Misericordia he says: "Of the London wretchedness 
and that of low Madrid, I do not know which is worse. 
That of Madrid is certainly more picturesque, owing 
to the splendid sun which shines upon it." 

It may be that the sun — and it has been blamed for 
much — has also something to do with the difference be- 
tween Alsatia and Monipodio's court, but the fact re- 
mains that they resemble each other very slightly. Scott 
could imitate better than that when he wanted. Those 
very Fortunes of Nigel originated in a series of letters 
imitated from the Jacobean that left little to be desired. 

As the late Don Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo re- 
marked in a lecture on "Cervantes y el Quijote" : 
"There runs through the pages of Rinconete an in- 
tense happiness, a sparkling gayety, a sort of esthetic 
tolerance which glosses over everything there is of ugly 
and criminal in the model, and which, without detriment 
to morality, converts the novel into an amusing and 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 49 

witty performance." And Don Francisco Rodriguez 
Marin states that Cervantes, in his Rinconete and 
Cortadillo, has given us a series of pictures full of 
life and charm, brilliant in color, and faithfully adjust- 
ed as to detail to the originals. These pictures, more- 
over, were not studied through a psychological prism or 
through an ethical lens, but were contemplated with 
the naked eye of a true artist. 

Both learned critics have been very happy in their 
remarks. Nevertheless, Avellaneda — ^he of the spur- 
ious second part of Don Quixote — hit the mark when, 
in his preface, he taunted Cervantes with saying 
that his novels were rather satirical than exemplary. 
Cervantes, instead of refuting the imputation, replied 
in the preface to his own second part of Don Quix- 
ote: "But, in fact, I thank this author (Avellaneda) 
for saying that my novels are rather satirical than ex- 
emplary, but that they are good . . . . " 

I am perfectly satisfied that Rinconete and Corta- 
dillo is a satirical novel. It could not be otherwise. 

Faithful in every detail to the life it depicts, and 
dealing, as it does, with an organization of human 
beings, it is only natural that it should portray the fail- 
ings and idiosyncrasies of mankind in general, some- 
what accentuated in such abnormal individuals, and 
therein lies its satire. 



50 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

That Cervantes did not intend his Rinconete and 
Cortadillo to be a satire is highly plausible, and that 
his novel gained thereby is more than likely. For had 
he set out to write a satire, the philosopher might pos- 
sibly have got the better of the artist, and the matchless 
picture he has given us would probably have deterio- 
rated. As it is, we have both the matchless picture and 
the satire, proving that a true artist is worth more than 
a philosopher. 

I may have taxed the patience of my readers with 
my somewhat lengthy — and mayhap tedious — disqui- 
sition, but I see no reason for tendering an apology. 
Enough cannot be said about Cervantes and his works. 
The illustrious Don Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo — 
himself a luminary of the first magnitude — earnestly 
pleaded for more light on Cervantes' writings, and 
if it be that in the ashes of my discourse there i's 
but one tiny spark — and I am conceited enough to think 
that there is one — which may throw a little light on 
such an important subject, my reader's time has not 
been entirely wasted. 

And so, patient — or impatient — reader, I bid you au 
revoir; for, following Cervantes' habit of promising 
another work when issuing each of his books, I must 
confide to you that I intend to publish a translation of 
the remaining Exemplary Novels, and I hope to be 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 51 

more successful in the fulfilment of my promise than 
was Cervantes in that of his own, though I am mindful 
of Rabbie Bums' lines to the effect that 

"The best-laid schemes o' Mice an' Men 
Gang aft a-gley." 

MARIANO J. LORENTE 



PROLOGUE TO THE EXEMPLARY NOVELS 

I WISH I could, if it were possible, beloved reader, 
excuse myself from writing this prologue; for I did 
not fare so well with the one I put to my Don Quixote 
that I should be willing to make a second attempt. 

For this one, I must blame a certain friend, of the 
many which in the course of my life I have made 
rather through my disposition than through my genius. 
Which friend could easily have had my picture en- 
graved and printed on the first page of this book; for 
the famous Don Juan de Jauregui would have given 
him my portrait. 

Thus would have been satisfied my own ambition and 
the desire of some who would like to know the looks 
and figure of him who dares to come out in the world's 
mart, placing so many inventions before the eyes of 
the public. And he could have written under my por- 
trait: 

"He that you see here with an aquiline face, with 
chestnut hair, smooth and open forehead, with cheer- 
ful eyes, hooked nose, though it is well proportioned, 
his beard of silver, though twenty years ago it was of 
gold, his moustaches large, his mouth small, his teeth 
scanty, for he has only six, and even they do not match, 

53 



54 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

his body between two extremes, neither large nor small, 
his complexion healthy, rather fair than brown, some- 
what round at the shoulders, and not very smart on his 
feet; he, I say, is the image of the author of La Galatea 
and oiDon Quixote, he who composed the Viaje al Par- 
naso, in imitation of the one written by Cesar Caporal 
of Perugia, and of many other scattered works which 
perhaps do not even bear the name of their author, and 
who is called commonly Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. 
**He was a soldier many years, and for five and a half 
years a captive, during which he learned the art of 
patience in adversity. He lost his left hand, from the 
shot of an arquebuse, at the naval battle of Lepanto 
and his wound, though it seems ugly, he holds to be 
handsome, for he received it in the highest and most 
memorable occasion which past ages have seen, or 
future ages hope to see, fighting under the victorious 
standards of the son of the thunderbolt of war, Charles 
v., of happy memory." 
" And even if other things about myself than those 
I have mentioned, should not have occurred to this 
friend, of whom I complain, I could have concocted 
two dozen testimonials to myself, telling them to him 
secretly, so that he would have advertised my name 
and proclaimed my genius; for to imagine that such 
panegyrics are punctiliously true is absolute nonsense, 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 55 

as neither praises nor vituperations have any real or 
exact foundation. 

In short, seeing that the opportunity has been wasted, 
and that I am left in the lurch, and without a portrait, 
I must of necessity make use of my own tongue, which, 
although it usually stammers, will not do so when it 
comes to speaking truths, for as a rule these are under- 
stood even by signs. And so I tell you, again, beloved 
reader, that with these novels I offer you, you will in 
no way be able to make a spicy dish; for they have 
neither head, nor tail nor anything resembling them. 
I mean to say that the love-making that you will find in 
them is all so honest, so compassed round with reason 
and with Christian discourse that any reader, careless or 
careful, may read it, and be stirred to no bad thoughts. 
I have dubbed them Exemplary, and if you look well 
into it, there is not one from which you could not 
derive a profitable example. 

If I did not fear to lengthen the subject too much, I 
would perhaps show you the tasty and honest fruit you 
might pluck from each and all of them. My intention 
has been to bring into the mart of our republic a sort 
of billiard table, where each one may find amusement 
without the slightest danger; that is to say, without 
danger to soul or body ; for honest and pleasant exer- 
cise is rather beneficial than harmful. For I know one 



56 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

is not always in the churches, nor is one always oc- 
cupied with business, however important it might be ; 
there are hours of recreation in which the afflicted 
spirit rests. 

It is for this purpose that promenades are shaded 
with poplars, springs are much sought after, hills are 
levelled and gardens cultivated with great care. 

One thing I shall dare to say: that if the reading of 
these novels could possibly engender in the reader one 
single bad wish or thought, I would rather cut off the 
hand with which I wrote them than give them to the 
public. At my age, one does not care to make fun of 
the next life; for I am more than nine years beyond 
five-and-fifty. 

To this work my genius has been devoted, and along 
this path my inclinations lead me, all the more as I 
understand, and it is so, that I am the first to write 
novels in the Castilian tongue; for the many novels 
which in it are printed are all translated from foreign 
languages, whereas these are my very own, neither 
imitated nor stolen. My genius begat them, my pen 
brought them forth and they are thriving in the arms 
of the press. 

After them, if life does not forsake me, I shall offer 
you the Trabajos de Per sites y Sigismunda, a book 
which will dare to compete with Heliodorus, if its 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 57 

daring does not earn for it a broken head. And you 
will see first, and within a very short time, a continua- 
tion of the wonderful deeds of Don Quixote and of 
the witticisms of Sancho Panza, and then the Semanas 
del Jardin. 

It is rather much that I promise with such a feeble 
strength as mine, but who can rein up his own desires ? 

I only wish you to consider one thing: that if I 
have the audacity to dedicate these novels to the great 
Count of Lemos, it is because therein lies hidden some 
mystery which gives them merit. 

No more, except God keep you, and may He give me 
patience to bear the evil which more than four sly and 
stiff starched fellows are bound to speak of m^e. 

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA 



RINCONETE AND CORTADILLO 

On one of the hot days of the Summer, two lads 
happened to find themselves in the tavern of "The Little 
Mill/' which is situated, as we go from Castile to 
Andalusia, at the end of the famous plains of Alcudia. 
One of them was from fourteen to fifteen years 
of age while the other was not over seventeen. Both 
were of pleasant countenance, but very ragged and 
dilapidated. They had no cloak, their breeches were 
of linen, and their stockings their very flesh. It is 
true that their shoes remedied these defects, for those 
of one were alpar gates worn and torn, and those of 
the other fancy and without soles; so that they served 
him more as fetters than as shoes. One wore a green 
hunter's cap; the other a hat without band, low of 
crown, and broad of brim. On his back, and fastened 
round his breast, one carried a shirt of chamois color 
rolled and tied in a small bag. The other was free 
from encumbrances and had no alforjas, but he 
seemed to carry a big parcel in his bosom, which — ^^as 
it turned out afterwards — was a collar of the kind 
called Walloon, starched with grease and so torn and 
threadbare that it was nothing but threads. In it 
were wrapped and preserved some playing-cards of an 

59 



6o Rinconete and Cortadillo 

oval shape : for with constant use the corners had been 
worn out, and, in order to make them last longer, 
they had been trimmed, and the cards remained of 
that shape. 

Both lads were sunburnt, their nails were uncut, and 
their hands not very clean. One had the half of a 
sword and the other a loiife with a yellow handle, usu- 
ally called a vaquero. The two came out to spend the 
siesta in a porch or shed in front of the tavern and, 
sitting down opposite each other, he who seemed to 
be the elder said to the younger : 

"To what part of the country does your worship, sir 
Knight, belong, and whither is he journeying?" 

"My country, sir Knight, I know not; neither do I 
know whither I am going," answered he to whom the 
question was addressed. 

"Troth," said the elder, "your grace does not seem 
to come from Heaven, and as this place is not such 
that one could fix his abode in it, j:'^-force you must 
pass on." 

"Quite right!" answered the younger. "But I told 
you the truth in what I said, for my country is not 
mine- -since I have nothing in it but a father who 
does not own me for his son, and a step-mother who 
treats me like a step-son. My journey is haphazard, 
and I would put an end to it wherever I could find 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 6i 

someone to give me enough to support this miserable 
life." 

"And does your worship know any trade?" queried 
the bigger lad ; and the smaller one replied : 

"I know no other except that I run like a hare, 
jump like a deer, and can wield the scissors with great 
dexterity." 

''AH that is very good, useful and profitable," said 
the bigger lad, "for there may be some sacristan who 
will give your grace the offering of All Saints, if by 
Maundy Thursday you cut some paper flowers for the 
monument." 

"My cutting is not after that fashion," retorted the 
smaller boy, "for my father, by the grace of Heaven, 
is a tailor and hosier, and he taught me to cut antiparas 
which, as your grace well knows, are stockings without 
soles, which — to give them their proper name — are 
usually called gaiters. And I cut them so well that, 
truly, I could pass an examination for a master's cer- 
tificate, only, an unkind fate keeps me in a corner." 

"All of that and more happens to honest folks," 
said the elder one, "and I have always heard it said 
that great talents are often lost, but, still, your grace 
is of an age to mend his luck. Yet, if I make no 
mistake and my eye tells me no lies, your grace has 
other secret gifts and does not wish to mention them." 



62 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

"Yes, I have," answered the younger one, " but not 
to be made public, as your honor has very well 
observed." 

To which the bigger lad replied: "Well, I have no 
hesitation in telling you that I am one of the most 
discreet youths that may be found anywhere; and to 
induce your worship to unburden his bosom and reveal 
himself to me, I wish to oblige him by opening my 
own breast first, for I imagine that not without some 
mysterious reason has fate brought us here together, 
and I think that we shall remain — from this to the last 
day of our lives — true friends. I, sir Knight, am a 
native of Fuenfrida, a village well known and famous 
for the illustrious travellers who continually pass 
through it. My name is Peter del Rincon; my father 
is a person of quahty, for he is an official of the Holy 
'Crusade. I mean to say, he sells bulls or is a huldero, 
as the vulgar call him. For some days, I accompanied 
him in his trade, and I learned it so well that in the 
matter -of selling bulls I could give odds to the greatest 
expert. But having one day interested myself, more in 
the money derived from the bulls than in the bulls 
themselves, I clasped my arms round one of the money 
bags and landed with it in Madrid, where, with the 
facilities which ordinarily present themselves there, in 
a few days I disemboweled the bag and left it with 




. . HAVING MY BACK LEATHERED 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 63 

more creases than a bride's handkerchief. The man 
responsible for the money followed me; I was ar- 
rested and met with little favor, although the magis- 
trates, considering my youthful age, contented them- 
selves with having me tied to an iron ring, and having 
my back leathered for a time, and sent me away, ban- 
ished from the capital, for four years. I was patient, 
shrugged my shoulders, stood the leathering and 
thrashing, and left to do the term of banishment in 
such a hurry that I had no time to look for a mount. I 
took my jewels as many as I could, and, especially, 
those that seemed to me most necessary, and among 
them, I brought away these cards" — and at this 
moment he produced the ones already mentioned, which 
he carried in the collar — "and with them I have earned 
my living in the taverns and inns between Madrid and 
this place, playing at veintiuna; and, although your 
worship beholds them so filthy and ill used, they have 
a marvellous virtue for those who understand them, 
for one could not cut the pack without leaving an ace 
below. And, if your worship be versed in the game, 
he will see what an advantage one has who knows 
for a certainty that the first card is an ace, which may 
serve him for one point or for eleven; and with this 
advantage, the veintiuna having been challenged, the 
money remains at home. 



64 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

"Apart from this, I learned from an ambassador's 
cook certain tricks at reversis and at a kind of lans- 
quenet, which is also called andahoha; for, just as 
your honor could pass an examination in the cutting 
of his antiparas, so can I be a master in the science 
of Vilhan. With these accomplishments, I am safe 
from dying of hunger, for, on arriving even at a farm 
house, there is always someone willing to kill time 
playing a little, and of this both of us shall have the 
experience later on. Let us spread our net and we 
will see if we can trap some bird of these muleteers 
who are hereabouts. I mean to say that we two shall 
play at veintiuna, as if we had stakes, and, if someone 
wishes to take a third hand, he will be the first to leave 
his pelf." 

"May it be in an auspicious hour," said the other, 
"and I hold it as a great favor the honor your wor- 
ship has bestowed on me by giving me an account of 
his life, whereby he has compelled me not to conceal 
my own, which, briefly told, is this: I was born at 
El Pedroso, a village between Salamanca and Medina 
del Campo. My father is a tailor and taught me his 
trade. From cutting cloth, thanks to my wonderful 
ingenuity, I passed on to cutting purses. The narrow 
life of the village and the unloving behaviour of my 
step-mother worried me. I left my village and went 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 65 

to Toledo to practise my profession and I have per- 
formed marvels, for there hangs not a reliquar}^ from 
a headdress, nor is there a pocket ever so hidden that 
my fingers do not visit or my scissors cut, even though 
it be watched with all the eyes of Argus. And in 
four months which I spent in that town, I was never 
locked up, nor surprised, nor harried by policemen, nor 
denounced by an informer. All the same, it is true 
that about eight days ago a double spy brought my 
abilities to the notice of the magistrate, and he, be- 
coming interested in my bright talents, wished to see 
me. But as I am of a humble disposition and dislike 
having intercourse with people of such a high station, 
I endeavored to avoid seeing him, and so I abandoned 
the city in such a hurry that I had no opportunity for 
finding a mount, or brass, or a chaise, or even a cart." 

"Let us forget that," said Rincon, *'and, since w^e 
have already made each other's acquaintance, there is 
no need for this bombast and arrogance. Let us plainly 
confess that we don't possess a copper, nor even shoes." 

"Be it so," replied James Cortado — for such, as he 
himself said, was the name of the younger one — "and 
since our friendship, as your worship, senor Rincon, 
has remarked, is to be perpetual, let us commence it 
with holy and praiseworthy ceremonies." 

Getting up, James Cdrtado embraced Rincon and 



66 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

Rincon embraced him tenderly and closely and, im- 
mediately, the two of them settled down to play at 
veintiuna with the already mentioned cards, clean of 
dust and straw, but not of grease and trickery, and 
after a few hands Gortado was cutting above the ace 
with as much skill as Rincon his teacher. 

As they were playing, a muleteer came out to the 
porch for a breath of fresh air, and asked them to be 
allowed to take a third hand. They welcomed him 
with a good will, and in less than half an hour they 
gained from him twelve reals and twenty -two fnaro- 
vedis, which was like giving him twelve stabs and 
twenty-two thousand blows. The muleteer, thinking 
that, being boys, they could not prevent it, attempted 
to take the money from them, but they, drawing the 
one his half sword and the other his yellow-handled 
knife, gave him so much to do that, had not his com- 
panions sallied forth, he would undoubtedly have had 
a bad time of it. 

At this juncture, there happened to come riding along 
the road a group of travellers who were going to 
spend the siesta at the tavern of "The Mayor," situ- 
ated half a league further on, and seeing the quarrel 
between the muleteer and the two boys, appeased them 
and asked the boys — if perchance they were going to 
Seville — to come along with them. 



I'fe 




. CORTADO AND RINCON WERE SO ADROIT IN 
SERVING THE TRAVELLERS . . /' 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 67 

"That's where we are going to," said Rincon, "and 
we shall serve your honors in all they should com- 
mand us." 

And without more delay they jumped in front 
of the mules and went away with the travellers, leav- 
ing the muleteer aggrieved and furious and the landlady 
astonished at the good breeding of the two rogues. She 
had been listening to their chatter without their notic- 
ing it, and when she told the muleteer that she had 
heard them say that the cards were marked, he plucked 
his beard and wanted to go to the tavern after them 
to recover his money. For, he said, it was a great 
affront and a mean trick that two boys should have 
cheated such a big man as he was. His companions, 
however, counselled him not to go, as it would only 
make public his idiocy and simplicity. In fine, such 
were the arguments they brought forth that, although 
they did not console him, they induced him to remain 
where he was. 

Meanwhile Cortado and Rincon were so adroit in 
serving the travellers, that for most of the road they 
carried them on the cruppers of their mules; and, 
although many opportunities presented themselves for 
picking the bags of their temporary masters, they did 
not avail themselves of them, so as not to lose such 



68 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

a good chance of travelling to Seville where they were 
very anxious to be. 

For all this, on entering the city — which they did at 
the hour of the Angelus and through the gate of the 
Custom House, owing to the examination of baggage 
and the payment of import duties which are exacted — 
Cortado could no longer resist the temptation to cut 
open the bag or valise which a Frenchman in the com- 
pany carried behind the saddle. And so, with his 
yellow-handled knife, he inflicted upon it such a wide 
and deep wound that its bowels could clearly be seen, 
and skilfully extracted therefrom two good shirts, a 
sundial, and a book of memoranda. Which articles, 
■^when they beheld them, did not give them great pleas- 
xire; and thinking that, since the Frenchman carried 
his bag behind the saddle, he would not have filled it 
with such worthless objects, they wanted to try again, 
but they did not do it, imagining that the travellers must 
have missed the stolen articles and put in safety those 
that were left. 

They had taken leave — previous to committing the 
theft — of their employers, and next day they sold the 
shirts in the malbaratillo which is held outside the gate 
of the Arenal, and made twenty reals out of them. 
This business transacted, they went to see the city, 
and \\ere astonished bv the grandeur and sumptuous- 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 69 

ncss of its cathedral, and by the great throng at the 
river side. For it was the time for loading the fleet, 
and there were six galleys in tlie river, whose sight 
made them sigh and even fear the day when their ill- 
doings would bring them to dwell aboard for life. 

They noticed many lads moving about carrying bas- 
kets, and they enquired of one of them what kind of a 
trade was tlieirs and if it was very laborious, and what 
were the earnings. An Asturian boy, to whom they had 
addressed their questions, replied that the work was 
light, free from taxes, and that some days he earned 
from five to six reals with which he ate and drank 
and treated himself like a king, free from having to 
seek a master, who would be sure to ask for references, 
and able to dine at any hour he wished, for in any 
tavern — and there were many and good ones in the 
city — even in the very lowest, they served dinner at 
all times. 

The account of the Httle Asturian did not seem bad 
at all to the two friends, nor did the occupation dis- 
please them. For it appeared to them that it was ad- 
mirably suited to tlie pursuit of their own calling 
under cover and with safety, as it offered them an 
opportunity for entering all houses, and they imme- 
diately decided to buy the necessary implements to 



70 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

carry on the business, since they could take it up with- 
out passing any examinations. 

Having asked the Asturian what they would have to 
buy, he answered that they would need two small 
linen bags clean or new, and three palm-leaf baskets 
each, two large ones and a small one, to carry meat, 
^sh, and fruit — the bags were for carrying bread. He 
took them where the articles were sold, and — with the 
money obtained from robbing the Frenchman — they 
purchased all the requisites, and within two hours 
they could have graduated in their new trade, so well 
did they handle the baskets and carry tlie bags. Their 
guide counselled them as to the places they would have 
to attend : in the mornings, at the meat market and at 
the square of San Salvador; on fast days, at the fish 
market and at the Costanilla; every afternoon, at the 
river side ; and, on Thursdays, at the fair. 

They learned this lesson well by heart, and the next 
day, early in the morning, took up their stations in 
the square of San Salvador. They had hardly ar- 
rived when they were surrounded by other lads of the 
same trade; for, from the splendid condition of their 
bags and baskets, it could be seen that they were new- 
comers in the square. 

They were asked a thousand questions and to all 
of them they replied with discretion and reserve. And 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 71 

as they were talking, there arrived a man with all the 
appearances of being a student, and a soldier, and at- 
tracted by the cleanliness of the baskets and the neat- 
ness of the two novices, he who seemed to be a student 
called on Cortado, and the soldier on Rincon. 

''May it be in the name of the Lord!" said the boys. 

"May the business prosper," exclaimed Rincon, 
"since your worship handsels me, dear sir." 

To which the soldier replied : "The handsel will not 
be bad ; for I have won some money, and I am in love, 
and I am going to give a banquet to some lady friends 
of my sweetheart." 

"Then, let your worship load me at his pleasure, for 
I have will and strength enough to carry away the 
whole of this square, and, were it even necessary that 
I should help to cook it, I would do so with a very 
good will." 

The soldier was delighted with the engaging man- 
ners of the lad, and told him that, if he wanted to take 
service, he would free him from his wretched occupa- 
tion. To which Rincon replied that as it was the 
first day he had engaged in it, he did not wish to leave 
it till he had, at least, found what it had of bad or 
good, and that, should it not please him, he gave him 
his word to serve him rather than serve a cannon. The 
soldier laughed, loaded him well, and showed him the 



J2 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

house of his lady, that he might know it in future, so 
as to save himself the trouble of accompanying him 
when he sent him there another time. Rincon prom- 
ised fidelity and good behaviour. 

The soldier gave him three cuartos and he imme- 
diately returned to the square so as not to miss a 
chance of employment. For the Asturian had also ad- 
vised them to be smart. He had told them, besides, 
that when they were carrying small fish, such as dace, 
sardines, or flounders, they could well take some and 
keep them for the day's fare, but that they must act 
with sagacity and caution lest they should lose their 
good names, as a good reputation was the most es- 
ential asset in their profession. 

Quickly as Rincon returned, he found Cortado al- 
ready at his post. Cortado accosted Rincon and asked 
him how he had fared. Rincon opened his hand and 
showed him the three cuartos. Cortado thrust his 
hand in his bosom and produced a little purse which 
showed signs of having been perfumed in former days 
with amber. It was somewhat swollen, and Cortado 
said: "With this and with two cuartos more his rev- 
erence, the student, paid me. Take it, Rincon, for 
goodness only knows what may happen." 

He had just transferred it secretly to him when, lo 
and behold! the student came sweating and deathly 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 73 

pale. Having perceived Cortado, he asked him if per- 
chance he had seen a purse of such and such descrip- 
tion which he had lost with fifteen gold escudos, three 
reals of two, and so many maravedis in cuartos and 
ochavos, and asked him to tell him if he had stolen it 
while he had been about purchasing w^ith him. To 
which, Cortado answered witli great dissimulation and 
without altering his expression in the least : *'A11 I can 
tell you about that purse is that it would not have been 
lost unless your worship had kept it in an unsafe 
place." 

"That is so, sinner that I am," exclaimed the student, 
"I must have put it in an unsafe place since they have 
stolen it from me." 

"That is what I say," rejoined Cortado. "But, there 
is a remedy for everything, except Death, and the first 
and best remedy your worship can take is to have 
patience, for God made us of little account and one day 
follows another, and where they give they take, and it 
might happen that, in time, he who stole the purse from 
you may come to repent of it and may return it to your 
worship purified with incense." 

"We would forgive him the incense," interrupted the 
student. 

"All the more," continued Cortado, "as there are 
letters of excommunication, paulinas, and great dil- 



74 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

igence which is the mother of good luck. And, truly, 
I would not care to be the person who carried off your 
purse, for, if it be that your worship holds some sacred 
order, it would seem to me that I had committed some 
great incest or sacrilege." 

"I should say he has committed an incest or sacri- 
lege," replied the distressed student, '*for, although I 
am not a priest, but only the sacristan of some nuns, 
the money in the purse belongs to tlie third of a chap- 
laincy which a priest friend of mine gave me to collect, 
and is money sacred and blessed." 

''That's his own affair," said Rincon at this point, 
"I don't envy him his profit, for there will be a day 
of judgment when everything will come out in the 
washing, and then we shall know who Callejas was 
and who the rogue who dared to take, steal or lessen 
the third of the chaplaincy. And, what income does it 
yield each year? tell me, Mister Sacristan, I pray you." 

"Damn the income! Do you think I am going to 
stand here and tell you what it yields?" repHed the 
sacristan in a burst of passion. ''Tell me, brother, if 
you know anything about the purse. If not, be with 
God, for I want to have it cried." 

"That does not seem to me to be a bad remedy," 
said Cortado. "But let your worship note that he must 
not forget the marks of the purse, nor the exact quan- 







THERE HE BEGAN TO TELL HIM SO MUCH 
NONSENSE . . /' 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 75 

tity of money there is in it, for, if he errs in one doit, 
it will never turn up in all the days of the world, and 
I hold this to be fate." 

"There is no fear of that," replied the sacristan, 
''for I have it imprinted on my memory^ better than the 
peal of my own bells. I shall not err in one atom." 

At this, he took out of his pocket a handkerchief 
bordered with lace, to wipe off the perspiration which 
issued from his face as from a still, and hardly had 
Cortado seen it when he decided to make it his own. 

The sacristan having departed, Cortado followed 
him, overtook him on the steps, called him and led him 
aside. There he began to tell him so much nonsense, of 
the kind called bemardinas, about the theft and the 
finding of his purse, giving him good hopes, but with- 
out ever finishing a sentence, that the poor sacristan 
stood dumbfounded listening to Cortado. And as he 
did not manage to understand what the lad was saying, 
he made him repeat his sentences two or three times. 
Q>rtado kept staring fixedly at his face and did not 
take his eyes off those of the sacristan, who was look- 
ing at him in the same way and was, as it were, hanging 
on his words. This rapture gave Cortado an opportu- 
nity for finishing his work, and slyly he subtracted the 
handkerchief from the sacristan's pocket, and bidding 
him good-bye told him to try and meet him in the 



76 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

afternoon in the same place, for he suspected that a 
lad of the same occupation and the same size as him- 
self, who was somewhat of a thief, had stolen the 
purse, and he undertook to find out in few or many 
days. 

With this the sacristan consoled himself a little and 
took leave of Cortado, who went to rejoin Rincon. 
The latter, standing a little aside, had witnessed 
everything. Lower down stood another lad with the 
baskets who had seen all that had taken place and how 
Cortado was giving the handkerchief to Rincon ; and 
coming up to them he said: "Tell me, young fops, 
are your honors of bad or good entry?" 

"We do not understand your words, gentle sir," 
answered Rincon. 

"W^hat! do you not follow, senores murcianost" 
replied the other. 

"We belong neither to Teba nor to Murcia," said 
Cortado. "If you wish anything else, say it; if not, 
God go with you." 

"You do not understand!" exclaimed the youth, 
"then I shall give it to you to understand and to drink 
with a silver spoon. 1 mean to say, sirs, are your 
worships thieves? But I wonder why I am asking 
you this question, for I know already that you are. 



Rinconete and Cortadillo ^y 

And tell me, how does it happen that you have not 
gone to tlie custom house of Senor Monipodio?" 

"Do they, then, exact a duty on thieves in this 
country, gentle sir?" asked Rincon. 

"If they do not pay it, at least they register them- 
selves with Seiior Monipodio who is their father, their 
teacher, and their protector; and, therefore, I advise 
3^ou to come with me and to pay him obeisance and, 
unless you do that, do not dare to steal without his 
sanction, or it w41i cost you dear." 

"I thought," said Cortado, "that stealing was a free 
profession, exempt from levies and taxes, and that if 
one pays, it is at once, giving as pledges your throat 
and your back ; but, since it is not so, and every country 
has its own usages, let us observe those of this land, 
which, being the most important in the world, must 
have the most proper customs. So, your worship may 
guide us to where that gentleman you speak of resides. 
Already I suspect that he is well qualified and very 
generous, and, besides, quite clever at his profession." 

"Of course he is qualified, clever and able !" replied 
the youth. "Sp much so that in the four years during 
which he has held the post of our chief and father, 
only four of us have suffered in the finibiisterre^ some 
thirty have been embesados, and sixty-two placed en 
giirapas." 



78 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

"Truly, sir/' said Rincon, "we understand those 
words as well as flying." 

"Let us be walking and I shall explain them to yon 
along the road," replied the youth, "together with some 
others with which you need to be as much acquainted 
as your mouth needs to be acquainted with bread." 
And so, during tlie course of his speech, which was 
not at all short — for the road was long — he went on 
telling them and explaining other words of the kind 
called germanescos or belonging to the germania. 

While they were walking, Rincon asked their g-oide : 

"Is your worship, perchance, a thief?" 

"Yes," replied he, "to serve God and honest people, 
but I am not an expert one, as I am. still serving my 
year's apprenticeship." 

To which Cortado rejoined: 

"It is news to me that there are thieves in the world 
to serve God and honest people." 

To this the youth replied: 

"Sir, I do not bother much with theology, but this 
much I know : that each one in his own profession may 
praise God, and especially with the good rule which 
Monipodio has issued to his children." 

"Without doubt," said Rincon, "it must be good and 
holy, for it makes thieves serve God." 

"It is so holy and so good," replied the youth, "that 




''. . . SHE FELL TO THE GROUND IN A FAINT." 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 79 

I do not know if it could be improved upon in our 
profession. He has ordered that, of everything we 
steal, we give alms or something for the oil of the lamp 
of an image in this town, which is greatly venerated, 
and, in truth, we have seen great things happen 
through this good action. Just the other day, they 
gave three ansias to a cuatrero who had murciado two 
roznos and, although he was thin and suffering from 
a quartan fever, he bore them without singing and as 
if they had been nothing at all, and this, we of the 
profession, attribute to his great devotion, for his own 
strength was not enough to endure the first desconcierto 
of the executioner. And as I know you will question 
me about some of the words I have used, I shall apply 
the remedy before the malady and explain before you 
ask me. Your worships shall know that cuatrero is a 
horse and cattle thief, ansia means torture, roznos arc 
asses — begging your pardon — and first desconcierto 
means the first turns of the rope that the executioner 
gives. Furthermore, we say our rosary divided 
throughout the week, and many of us do not steal on a 
Friday, nor hold conversation on a Saturday with any 
woman of the name of Mary." 

"Ali^at seems very excellent to me," said Cortado, 
**but will your worship tell me if there are any other 



8o Rinconete and Cortadillo 

restitutions made, or penances done besides those you 
have mentioned?" 

"There is no use talking about restitution," answered 
the youth, "for it is an impossible thing to perform 
owing to the numerous parts into M^iich a theft is 
divided, each of the leaders and perpetrators taking 
his share. And so it is that the first thief can not re- 
store anything, all the more as there is no one to order 
us to do this service ; for we never go to confession ; 
and if the victims obtain letters of excommunication, 
they never come to our notice, for we never go to 
church when they are read, except on days of jubilee — 
for then the great concourse of people offers us a large 
haul." 

"And by doing only that, those gentlemen tell us," 
said Cortado, "that theirs is a good and holy hfe?" 

"And why not? What is there of evil in it?" retort- 
ed the youth. "Is it not worse to be a heathen or a 
renegade, or to kill one's father and mother, or to be 
a solomite?" 

"Sodomite is what your worship means," ^answered 
Ivincon. 

"That's it," said the youth. 

"All that is bad," exclaimed Cortado. "But, since 
fate has willed that we join this brotherhood, pray let 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 8i 

your worship hasten his step, for I am dying to meet 
senor Monipodio of whom so many virtues are related." 

"Your wish shall soon be gratified," said the youth, 
"for from this very spot you can already see his 
house. Let your worships remain at the door and I 
will go in and see if he is disengaged, as this is the 
time when lie usually grants audience." 

"May it be in an auspicious hour !" exclaimed Rin- 
con, and the boy — having advanced a little — entered a 
house, not of good but, indeed, of very bad appearance. 

The two lads remained waiting at the door. 

Presently, tlie youth came out and called them. 
They went in and their guide ordered them to wait in 
a little court paved with bricks, so clean and polished 
that it seemed to have been painted with the purest of 
carmines- On one side there was a three-legged stool, 
and on the other a large pitcher with a broken mouth, 
and on top of it a little jug no less defective than the 
pitcher. Elsewhere there was a mat of rushes, and in 
the middle of the court a large flower-pot, called in 
Seville a "sweet basil pot." 

While senor Monipodio was coming down, the lads 
were carefully surveying the furnishings of the house, 
and, seeing that he was rather long, Rincon ventured 
to enter one of two low chambers which opened on to 
the court, and in it he saw two fencing swords and two 



82 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

cork shields hanging from four nails, a large chest 
witliout lid or any other covering, and other three 
rush-niats spread on the floor. Stuck on the wall, 
facing the door, there was an image of Our Lady — a 
very bad print ; hanging below, there was a little basket 
of palm leaf, and encased in the wall a white basin. 
From all these, Rincon inferred that the basket served 
the purpose of an alms-box, and that the basin was 
used to hold holy water, which was really the case. 

While the boy was inspecting the room, two young 
men — each of about twenty years of age and dressed 
like students — entered the house, followed in a little 
wliile by two basket carriers and a blind man; and 
without any of them uttering a word, they began to 
walk up and down the court. Not long afterwards 
came two old men in baize, wearing spectacles — which 
gave them an air of stateliness and respectability — 
and carrying in their hands a rosary of jingling beads 
each. After them came an old woman in flowing robes 
and, without saying a word, went into the room, and, 
dipping her fingers in holy water with great reverence, 
knelt down before the image. After a rather long 
interval she kissed the floor three times, raised her 
eyes and arms to heaven as many times, and rose up. 
She dropped an alms in the basket, left the chamber 
and joined the company in the court. 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 83 

Before long there gathered in the court as many as 
fourteen people of different occupations and garbs. 
Among the later arrivals came two handsome young 
gallants with long moustaches, wearing hats of wide 
brim, Walloon collars, colored hose, showy garters, 
swords of more than ordinary- length, pistols — instead 
of daggers — and bucklers hanging from their belts. As 
soon as they entered the court they looked askance at 
Rincon and Cortado, showing that they did not know 
them, and thought they were strangers. Walking up 
to the boys, the two gallants asked them if they be- 
longed to the brotherhood, and Rincon replied : 

"Yes, and we are your worship's most humble ser- 
vants." 

At this very moment senor Monipodio — as anxiously 
expected as he was greatly admired by all that virtuous 
company — came downstairs. He seemed to be forty- 
five or forty-six years old, and was tall of stature and 
dark of complexion. His eyebrows met, his beard was 
bushy and black, and his eyes sunken. He wore neither 
jacket nor vest, and through the aperture in front of 
his shirt one could see a veritable forest — so much hair 
had he on his breast. Hanging from his shoulders he 
wore a baize cloak reaching almost down to his feet, 
which were shod with shoes worn in slipper-like 
fashion. His legs were covered — down to his ankles — 



84 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

by linen saraguelles broad and long. His hat was a 
gypsy one, with a bell-shaped top and a straight brim. 
Across his breast and back he wore a shoulder-belt 
from which hung a short broadsword, like those mark- 
ed with a little dog. His hands w^re short and hairy, 
his fingers fat, and his nails broad and uncut. His legs 
could not be seen, but his feet were enormously broad 
and had bunions. In fact, he was the picture of the 
most rustic and ili-shapen barbarian in the world. 

With him came the guide of the boys who, taking 
them by the hand, introduced them to Monipodio, 
saying : 

"These are the two good lads of whom I have spoken 
to your worship, my lord Monipodio. Pray, let your 
worship examine them, and he will see that they fully 
merit being admitted into our brotherhood." 

"I shall do that wath a good will/' replied Monipodio. 

I was forgetting to mention that, as soon as Moni- 
podio descended the stairs, all those who were waiting 
f®r him made a profound and prolonged reverence, 
except the two gallants who, a medio mo gate (care- 
lessly), as they say among themselves, took off 
their hats and continued their walk on one side of tlie 
court, while Monipodio began to walk on the opposite. 

He questioned the novices as to their profession, 
country, and parentage, and Rincon replied : 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 85 

"Our profession is evident, since we have come 
before your worship. Our country does not seem to 
me to be important enough to mention it, nor our 
parents either, since there will never be any inquiries 
made in order to confer upon us some honorable order." 

To this Monipodio rejoined: 

"You are right, my son. It is a very judicious policy 
to conceal the things you have mentioned; for, should 
your luck not run as it ought to, it would be a pity that 
it should be recorded over a lawyer's signature or in 
the registrar's book that: 'So and so, son of so and so, 
and native of such and such a place, was hanged or 
flogged on such and such a date,' or a similar statement 
which, at least, jars honest ears, and so I tell you again 
that it is a judicious policy to make no mention of one's 
country, to conceal one's parents, and to change one's 
own name. Yet, among us, nothing must be concealed 
and now, all I wish to know is the names of you two." 

Rincon told his, as also did Cortado. 

"Well then," said Monipodio, "henceforth, I desire 
and it is my will that you, Rincon, shall be called Rin- 
conete, and you, Cortado, Cortadillo, which are nam^s 
that fit like a glove your ages and our ordinances, 
under which it is a duty to know the names of the 
pairents of our brethren. For we are in the habit each 
year of having certain masses said for the souls of our 



S6 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

dead members and benefactors, taking a portion of that 
which is stolen for the stupor or fee for him who says 
them, and these same masses, said and paid for, are 
supposed to benefit the said souls by way of sufferance. 
Among our benefactors are included the procurator 
who defends us, the constable who warns us, the execu- 
tioner who has pity on us, and the man who, when 
one of us is fleeing down the street with a mob at his 
heels shouting : 'Thief ! Thief ! Stop him ! Stop him !' 
stands in the middle of the street and tries to stem the 
flood of followers, saying : 'Leave the wretch alone ; 
for his luck is hard enough! Leave him alone with 
his own conscience, and his sin shall be his punish- 
ment !' We have also our benefactresses, the sisters of 
charity, who by the sweat of their brow help us as 
well in court as in jail. There are also our fathers and 
mothers who brought us into the world, and the lawyer ; 
for if he be in a good mood, there is no breach of the 
law which is rated as crime and no crime which meets 
with much punishment, and for all these I have men- 
tioned, our brotherhood celebrates yearly their ad- 
versary with the greatest poop and solidity we are 
able to." 

"Truly," said Rinconete (already confirmed with his 
new name) "it is a work worthy of the great and very 
profound intellect which, we have heard it said, your 




THIEF! THIEF! STOP HIM! STOP HIM! 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 87 

worship, seiior Monipodio, possesses, but it happens 
that our parents still enjoy life. However, should we 
survive them, we shall at once give notice to this most 
happy and powerful brotherhood, in order that for the 
benefit of their souls may be made that shipwreck or 
tempest, or that adversary your worship mentioned, 
with the accustomed solemnity and pomp, if it is not 
with poop and solidity, as your worship also remarked 
in his discourse." 

"So it shall be, or there will be not a piece left of 
me," replied Monipodio; and calling to the guide, he 
said to him : ''Come here, Ganchuelo, are the sentinels 
at their posts?" 

"Yes," answered the guide — for Ganchuelo was his 
name — "there are three sentinels on the look-out, and 
there is no fear that we might be taken by surprise." 

"Coming back to our subject, then," said Monipodio, 
"I would like to learn, my sons, whc-.t you know^ in 
order that I may give you occupation and employment 
suitable to your inclinations and abilities." 

"I," said Rinconete, "am somewhat versed in cards; 
I can keep a card up my sleeve ; I can mark cards so 
that no one will know the difference ; I can slip a card 
here and there at will; I can mark cards and can tell 
each one by feeling them with my fingers ; I can cut the 
pack by any card I please ; I would join in a trick rather 



88 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

than join a regiment in Naples, and I would more read- 
ily swindle a man than give him the loan of two reals." 

"That is all right for a start," said Monipodio, "but 
all the things you mention are like flowers of lavender, 
so old and withered that there is no novice but knows 
them, and they are useful only to some greenhorn who 
would allow himself to be killed after midnight. Yet, 
time will tell, and we shall see ; for, basing half a dozen 
lessons on those foundations, I trust in God you shall 
become a famous artist and perhaps even a master." 

"All shall be done to serve your worship and the 
gentlemen of the brotherhood," replied Rinconete. 

"And you, Cortadillo, what do you know?" asked 
Monipodio. 

"I," answered Cortadillo, "know the trick by which — 
as the saying goes — you put in two and take out five, 
and I know how to pick a pocket with great quickness 
and dexterity." 

"Do you know anything else?" asked Monipodio. 

"No, for my great sins," replied Corladillo. '^ 

"Do not grieve, my son," said Monipodio, "for you 
have come to a good port and a good school where 
you will not be drowned, neither will you fail to leave 
them vastly improved in all that may be useful to you. 
And, in regard to courage, how do you feel, my son ?" 

"How else could we feel," answered Rinconete, "but 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 89 

very well? Courage we have to attempt any enterprise 
dealing with our art and profession.'* 

"That is fine," replied Monipodio, "but I wotild like 
you to have courage to suffer, were it necessary, half 
a dozen ansias, without opening your lips or saying one 
single word." 

"We know already," said Cortadillo, "what you 
mean here, sciior Monipodio, by ansias. We have 
courage for everything and we are not so ignorant as 
not to know tliat what the tongue speaks the neck has 
to pay for. Heaven has amply honored the daring 
man — to give him no other title — ^b}^ leaving his life 
or his death dependent on his tongue, as if *nay* had 
more letters than 'yea.' " 

"Enough ! There is no need to say any more !" ex- 
claimed Monipodio at this moment. "I say that such 
an answer as yours, convinces me, constrains me, per- 
suades me, and forces me to grant you at once the 
rights of fuM fledged brethren and to let you off the 
year of apprenticeship." 

"I am of the same opinion," said one of the gallants, 
and with one voice, those present confirmed the deci- 
sion, for they had been listening to all the conversation, 
and they asked Monipodio to forthwith confer upon 
the boys, and allow them to enjoy the immunities of the 



90 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

brotherhood, as their pleasing appearance and good 
talk deserved everything. 

Monipodio replied that, to please everybody, he 
would grant the immunities, and told the lads to hold 
them in great esteem ; for it meant that they would not 
have to pay any tithe from the first theft committed, 
nor would they need — during the whole of that year — 
to perform any menial duties, such as taking levies, 
from his contributories, to any older brother who was 
either in prison or at the brothel. They would be enti- 
tled to drink wine neat and to hold a banquet when, 
how, and where they pleased, without asking leave of 
their squad chief. They could share in whatever their 
elder brothers should steal, as if they were also elders, 
and several other things which they held as great gifts 
and for which they thanked those present with very 
courteous words. 

When they were thus busy, a lad came in running 
and out of breath, and he said : "The constable of the 
vagabonds is walking towards this house, but he brings 
no policemen with him." 

''Let no one be alarmed," said Monipodio; *'for he 
is a friend and never comes here for our ill. Be quiet 
and I shall go out to speak to him." 

Although somewhat alarmed at first, they all calmed 
down and Monipodio went to the door, where he met 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 91 

the constable and remained talking to him for a while. 
Then Monipodio came back and asked : 

"Who was on duty to-day at the square of San 
Salvador?" 

"I," answered the guide. 

''Then, how is it," asked Monipodio, ''that no account 
has been given me of an amber scented purse which, 
along with fifteen gold escudos, two reals of two and 
I do not know how many cuartos, disappeared this 
morning in that place?" 

'Tt is true that such a purse went astray to-day/' 
said the guide, "but I did not take it, nor can I imagine 
who could have taken it." 

"No tricks with me," replied Monipodio, "the purse 
must turn up, for the Constable — who is a friend and 
does us a thousand good turns every year — is asking 
for it." 

The youth again swore that he knew nothing about 
it. 

At this, Monipodio began to get into such a passion 
that his eyes wxre flashing forth living fire, and he 
said: 

"Let no one make jest by breaking the least regula- 
tion of our order, for it will cost him his life. Let the 
purse be produced and, if it was hidden in order to 
avoid the duties, I shall give to the one who committed 



92 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

it every bit of his lawful share, and I shall pay it out o£ 
my own pocket for, by all means, the Constable must 
go away satisfied." 

The youth began to swear anew and cursed himself, 
saying that he had not stolen the purse, nor even seen 
it with his own eyes. 

All this was like adding fuel to Monipodio^s wrath 
and gave occasion for the whole company to get ex- 
cited, seeing that their statutes and good regitlations 
were being broken. 

Rinconete, considering the great disturbance and 
uproar, thought it would be well to put a stop to it and, 
at the same time, give pleasure to his chief who was 
bursting with rage, and, having consulted his friend 
Cortadillo, with common consent produced the sac- 
ristan's purse and said: 

"Let all argument cease, gentlemen ! This is the 
purse, without wanting in one single item of those 
mentioned by the Constable; for to-day my comrade 
Cortadillo stole it along with a handkerchief which he 
took into the bargain from the same v wner." 

Immediately Cortadillo produced the handkerchief 
and exhibited it. 

On seeing this, Monipodio said : 

"Let Cortadillo the Good— for with this title and 
surname he shall be known henceforth— keep the 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 93 

handkerchief. I undertake to reward this service fit- 
tingly, and let the purse be taken to the Constable, 
for it belongs to a sacristan who is some relative of 
his. It is advantageous that the proverb should be ful- 
filled which says : 'It is not unreasonable to give a leg 
of the hen to him who presented you with the whole 
fowl/ This good Constable overlooks more in one day 
than we could give him, or do usually give him, in 
one hundred." 

They unanimously approved of the honesty of the 
two new-comers and of the sentence and opinion of 
their leader, who went out to deliver the purse to the 
Constable, and Cortadillo remained confirmed in his 
surname of 'the Good' as if he had been Don Alonso 
Perez de Guzman 'the Good/ who flung his dagger 
over the walls of Tarifa that his only son's throat might 
be cut with it. 

When Monipodio returned — which he did presently 
— there came into the court with him two young 
women, their faces daubed with pomade, their lips full 
of color and their bosoms smeared with white paint. 
They v/ere wrapped up in short mantles of serge and 
were very impertinent and immodest ; clear signs these 
by which Rinconete and Cortadillo, on seeing them, 
recognized that they belonged to a brothel — and they 
were not mistaken in the least. As soon as they en- 



94 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

tered, they went over with open arms, one to Chiquiz- 
naque and the other to Maniferro; for these were the 
names of the two gallants. Maniferro's name was 
derived from the fact that he had an iron hand instead 
of his own, which he had had cut off by the executioner. 
The gallants embraced the women with great joy and 
asked them if they had brought anything with which 
to wet their throats. 

"Of course; how could we forget it?" exclaimed 
one of them called Gananciosa, "your servant Silbatillo 
will not be long in coming with the basket of the wash- 
ing packed full of what God has been pleased to grant 
us." And so it was ; for immediately a boy entered 
bringing a washing basket covered with a sheet. 

When Silbato entered, they all rejoiced and at once 
Monipodio ordered that one of the rush mats, which 
were in the chamber, be brought out and spread in 
the middle of the court. He also told them to sit 
around, in order that having appeased their appetites, 
they should next deal with some important things. 

At this, the old woman who had been praying to the 
image in the chamber, said : "Monipodio, my son, I 
am not for any banquetings, as in the last few days I 
have had such a fearful headache that it almost drives 
me mad. Besides I must go before midday to say my 
prayers and place some tapers in front of Our Lady 




THE GALLANTS EMBRACED THE WOMEN WITH 
JOY . . /' 



> 



Rinconete and Cortadilio 95 

of the Waters and of the Holy Crucifix at St. August- 
ine. What I came here for, was to say that last night 
Renegado and Centopies brought into my house a wash 
basket larger than the present one, full of white linen 
and, may God bless my soul ! it came with cernada and 
all, as the poor beggars probably had no opportunity of 
throwing it away. They arrived dripping with 
sweat. It was pitiful to see them coming in panting 
and with the perspiration pouring from their faces. In 
fact, they looked like two little angels. They told me 
they were after a drover wJio had been weighing some 
rams at the slaughter house, to see if they could steal 
a very big purse of reals which he carried with him. 
They did not unpack the linen nor count it, trusting to 
the integrity of my conscience, and — may God grant me 
all my good wishes and deliver us all from the hang- 
man — I have not touched the basket and it is now as 
whole as on the day it w^as bom." 

"We believe all that, my good mother," said Moni- 
podio. "Let the basket remain as it is. I shall go to 
your house towards evening, examine and inspect its 
contents, and give every one his dues, equitably and 
faithfully, as is my custom." 

"Be it as you will, my son," said the old wom.an, 
"and, as it is getting late, give me a drop, if you have 



g6 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

it, to console this stomach of mine which is continually- 
getting faint." 

''You shall drink it of the best, mother mine," said 
Escalanta, for sucli was the name of Gananciosa's 
companion ; and, uncovering the basket, there appeared 
a leathern bota contaiining about eight gallons of wine, 
and a jar which could hold comfortably and without 
overflowing about half-a-gallon. Escalanta filled the 
jar to the brim and handed it to the ver}^ pious old 
woman, who took it with both hands and, having blown 
off a little froth, said : 

"You poured a lot, my daughter Escalanta, but Gk)d 
will give me strength for it all." And pressing it to 
her lips, at one draught, and without taking breath, 
she transferred the wine from the jar to her stomach 
and finished up by saying : 

'Mt is from Guadalcanal, and the little gentleman 
somewhat smacks of gypsum. May God comfort you, 
my daughter, for you have comforted me thus. Only, 
I am afraid it will do me harm, for I have not had 
my breakfast yet." 

"It will not, mother," said Monipodio, "for it is 
two years old." 

"I hope so in the Virgin," answered the old woman, 
and she added: "Look here, girls, have you some 
cuartos with which to buy the tapers for my prayers? 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 97 

Because with the hurry and anxiety to bring the news 
about the basket, I forgot my purse at home." 

"I have some, senora Pipota" — for this was the good 
old woman's name — repUed Gananciosa. "Here you 
are ; I am giving you two cuartos. With one of them I 
wish to buy a taper for myself and to place it in front 
of my Lord St. Michael, and, if you can buy two, 
place the other in front of my Lord St. Blaise; for 
they are my patrons. I would like you to place another 
before my Lady St. Lucy, for whom I have great 
devotion as she is the advocate of the eyes, but I have 
no more change. I shall have more some other day 
and then I shall settle with them all." 

"You will do perfectly right, my daughter. And see 
and be not stingy, and remember it is of the very 
greatest importance to take the candles and place them 
personally before one dies, and not wait for the heirs 
or trustees to place them." 

"Mother Pipota says well," rejoined Escalanta, and 
thrusting her hand into her purse, she gave her another 
cuarto and begged her to offer other two tapers to those 
saints whom she considered more useful and grateful. 

With this, Pipota went away saying : "Make merry, 
my children, now that you are in your prime, for old 
age will come and you will moan for the hours you lost 
in your youth, as I bewail them now. And commend 



98 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

me to God in your prayers, for I am going to do like- 
wise for my sake and for your own, in order that He 
may guard and keep us in our perilous profession 
without any surprises by the police." And with these 
words she left. 

When the old woman had gone away, they all sat 
round the mat. Gananciosa spread the sheet by way 
of table cloth, and the first things she took out of the 
basket were a bundle of radishes and over a dozen 
oranges and lemons, and then an earthen pan full of 
slices of fried cod. She afterwards produced half a 
Flemish cheese, a pot of superior olives, a plate of 
shrimps, a great quantity of craw-fish with their savory 
of large capers covered with chillis, and three big and 
very white loaves of bread from Gandul. 

There might have been fourteen people to lunch and 
none of them failed to bring out a yellow-handled 
knife, excepting Rinconete who produced his half 
sword. To the two old men in baize and to the guide, 
fell the duty of distributing the wine with the jar. But 
hardly had they begun to tackle the oranges, when they 
were all startled by some knocks at the door. Moni- 
podio ordered them to be calm, and going into the low 
chamber, took down a shield, grasped his sword, and, 
walking to the door, asked in a hollow fearsome voice : 
"Who knocks?" 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 99 

"It is I, or rather, nobody, seiior Monipodio. I am 
Tagarote, who has stood watch since this morning, 
and I come to say that JuHana, the Cariharta, is walk- 
ing hither, so dishevelled and tearful that some disaster 
must have befallen her." 

At this moment the woman whom he had mentioned 
arrived sobbing and, hearing her, Monipodio opened 
the door and ordered Tagarote to return to his post 
and that, in future, he should bring them notice of 
what he saw, with a little less noise and racket. The 
lad ansvv^ered that he would do so. 

Cariharta, who was a young woman of similar 
appearance and the same occupation as the others, came 
in. Her hair was torn and her face disfigured by blows, 
and as soon as she entered the court, she fell to the 
ground in a faint. Gananciosa and Escalanta ran to 
her assistance and, opening her bosom, they found her 
all black and blue, as if she were bruised. They 
sprinkled some water on her face and she came to her- 
self shouting at the pitch of her voice : 

"God's and the king's justice strike that thieving 
cut-throat, that cowardly rascal, that verminous rogue 
whom I have saved from the gallows more times than 
there are hairs in his beard. Woe is me ! See for 
whom I have sacrificed and wasted my youth ! For a 
heartless, treacherous and incorrigible brute !" 



lOO Rinconete and Cortadillo 

"Calm yourself, Cariharta," interposed Monipodio, 
"for I am here to deal you justice. Tell us your 
grievance, and be sure tliat you will take longer in 
relating it than I in avenging you. Tell me if someone 
has shown lack of respect towards you, for, if that is 
the case and you desire vengeance, you need only to 
open your mouth." 

"What respect?" exclaimed Juliana. "May I be 
respected in hell if I be again respected by that lion 
among ewes and lamb among men. Eat bread again 
at the same table or lie in the same bed with him?. . .1 
would first see jackals tearing this flesh of mine which 
he has mauled in the fashion 3^ou shall now see." And 
immediately raising her skirts up to her knees, or even 
a little higher, exposed her legs full of weals. "In 
this fashion," she proceeded, "has that ungrateful 
Repolido treated me, owing more to me, as he does, 
than to the very mother who bore him. And why, do 
you think, has he done it? Perhaps I made him jealous 
and gave him occasion for it? Certainly not! He 
just did it because he ordered his servant Cabrillas to 
ask me for thirty reals — for he was gambling and 
losing money — and I sent him only twenty- four. And 
the labor and trouble I had in earning them, I pray to 
Heaven will be taken into account for the atonement 
of my sins. And in payment for this courtesy and good 



Rinconete and Cortadillo loi 

service, believing that I was cheating him — according 
to some calculations he had made in his imagination as 
to the money I might have — he took mc out this 
morning to the field behind the King's garden and, 
there, among somte olive trees, undressed me and with 
his belt, without even taking off the buckle — and for 
this may I see him in evil fetters and irons — he gave me 
so many lashes that he left me for dead ; of which true 
history these weals you see are good witnesses." 

And here she began again to raise her voice and to 
clamor for justice, which Monipodio and all the gal- 
lants present promised her anew. Gananciosa took 
her hand and tried to console her, telling her that she 
would have willingly given up one of her best jewels 
in order that the same thing might have happened to 
her with her lover: "For I wish you to know," she 
said, "sister Cariharta, in case you do not know it^hat 
he who loves well chastises wxll, and when these brutes 
strike us, leather us and kick us, it is then that they 
adore, us. If not, on your life, confess one truth to me : 
after Repolido had punished and bruised you, did he 
not bestow one caress on you ?" 

"How one?" retorted the tearful woman. "One 
hundred thousand he bestowed, and he would gladly 
give up one of his fingers were I to go with him to 



102 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

his lodgings, and it even seems to me that he very 
nearly burst into tears after he had mauled me." 

*1 do not wonder at that/' said Gananciosa. "And 
he would cry with pity to see how he had left you ; for 
in such cases, this kind of men have hardly committed 
their crime, when they repent of it, and you shall see, 
sister, if he does not come looking for you before we 
move from here, and ask your forgiveness for all that 
has happened, submitting to you like a lamb." 

'Indeed," said Monipodio, "the cowardly felon shall 
not enter through these doors without first making 
public penance for the fault committed. How dare 
he put his hands on Cariharta's face, or on her flesh, 
being, as she is, a person who can compete in clean- 
liness and earnings with Gananciosa herself, who is 
here present, and I could not give her any higher 
praise?" 

"Ah!" exclaimed Juliana at these words, "let not 
your worship, sehor Monipodio, speak evil of that devil, 
for, bad and all as he is, I love him better than my own 
heart-strings, and the reasons which my friend 
Gananciosa has advanced in his favor have brought 
back my soul to my body, and I am almost ready to go 
and seek him." 

"You shall not do that if you take my advice," 
replied Gananciosa; "for he will swell and grow big 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 103 

with pride and he will slash you up and down as if you 
were a fencing dummy. Calm yourself sister ; for, be- 
fore long, you shall see him come as repentant as I have 
already told you. And if he does not come, we will 
write him a letter in couplets to exasperate him." 

"That is a good idea," said Cariharta; "for I have a 
thousand things to write to him." 

"I will be secretary when it will be necessar}^" said 
Monipodio, "and, although I am no poet, yet, if I set 
myself to it I will dare to write two thousand couplets 
in the winking of the eye, and, even if they did not 
turn out as they ought to, I have a friend — a barber — a 
great poet, who can complete our metre at any hour. 
And at the present one, let us finish what we had begun 
of our lunch: for, afterwards, everything will be 
settled." 

Juliana was content to obey her chief, and so they 
all returned to their gaudeamus, and in a short time 
they could see the bottom of the basket and the dregs 
of the bota. The old men drank sine fine, the lads 
freely, and the ladies a good deal. 

The old men asked leave to depart, and Monipodio 
granted it immediately, recommending to them great 
punctuality in bringing intelligence of anything they 
might see likely to be useful or profitable to the brother- 



I04 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

hood. They answered that they would take good care 
of that, and they went away. 

Rinconete — who was of an inquisitive nature— beg- 
ging first his pardon and leave, asked Monipodio of 
what use were these two gray-headed, grave, and 
pompous persons to the brotherhood. To which 
Monipodio replied that in their slang and manner of 
speaking, they were called avispones and they were use- 
ful going about town through the day avispando in 
which houses an attempt could be made at night, and in 
follov/ing those who took money out of the Contra ta- 
cion or mint, to see where they carried it to and even 
to ascertain where they placed it and, on becoming 
acquainted with the facts, they felt the thickness of the 
walls of the house and sketched out the most convenient 
place for boring the guzpataros (meaning holes) in 
order to facilitate an entrance. In short, he said they 
were the most, or at least some of the most, useful per- 
sons in the brotherhood, and that, from everything 
which through their ingenuity was stolen, they received 
a fifth part — which is exactly the same amount received 
by His Majesty from the national coffers — and that, 
with all this, they were very truthful and honest men, 
of good life and repute, fearing God and their own 
consciences, and heard mass every day with extreme 
devotion. And there are some of them so discreet. 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 105 

especially the two who have just left, that they content 
themselves with far less than what, according to our 
regulations, is their due. "There are two others who are 
porters," continued Monipodio, "and, as they are al- 
ways engaged in removals, they know the ins and outs 
of every house in the city, and which should prove 
profitable to us, and which not." 

"All that seems to me excellent," said Rinconete, 
"and I would like to be of some use to such a wonder- 
ful brotherhood." 

"Heaven always favors wortliy aspirations," replied 
Monipodio. 

As they were thus talking, some one knocked at the 
door. Monipodio went out to see who it was and, 
having inquired, the answer came : "Let your worship 
open, senor Monipodio ; for I am Repolido." 

Cariharta heard the voice, and raising her own to 
heaven shouted: "Do not open, your worship, senor 
Monipodio ! Do not open the door to that Tarpeian 
sailor, that tiger of Ocana !" 

In spite of that, Monipodio did not fail to open to 
Repolido. But Cariharta, seeing that he was opening 
the door, got up in a hurry, fled into the chamber where 
the shields hung, shut the door behind her, and from 
inside began to say in a loud voice : "Take away from 



io6 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

my sight that living grimace, that slaughterer of inno- 
cents, that scare-crow which frightens tame doves!" 

Maniferro and Chiquiznaque were holding back 
Repolido, who by all means insisted on entering the 
room where Cariharta had taken shelter. But, as they 
would not allow him, he shouted from outside : "That 
will do, my little fury! By your life, calm yourself 
and perhaps you shall see yourself married !" 

'1 married, you blackguard!" replied Cariharta. 
"See what key he is striking now! You would be 
delighted if I were married to you, but 1 would rather 
be married to a skeleton !" 

"Come, silly woman," said Repolido, "let us end 
this at once; for it is late. And mind, do not grow 
conceited at seeing me so submissive and talking 
quietly, or, by God ! if anger gets into my top story, the 
relapse will be worse than the malady. Humble your- 
self and let us all humble ourselves, and do not let us 
feed the devil." 

"I would give him even a banquet," said Cariharta, 
"provided he would take you away where my eyes 
could never see you again." 

"Did I not tell you?" ejaculated Repolido, "By God ! 
I begin to see. Mistress Fire-brand, that I shall have to 
raise the price to twelve, if it is never sold." 

To this, Monipodio said: "There must be no un- 



' %|^1 ' MM? 




MANIFERRO AND CHIQUTZNAQUE WERE HOLDING 
BACK REPOLIDO . . /' 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 107 

seemly scenes in my presence. Cariharta shall come 
out, not through any threats, but for love of me, and 
all will end well; for quarrels between those who 
love each other well, only cause a greater pleasure 
when peace is made. Hallo, Juliana! hallo girl! Hallo, 
Cariharta dear ! come out here for my sake, for I shall 
make Repolido beg your pardon on his knees !" 

*'If he do that," said Escalanta, "we shall all take 
sides with him and beg Cariharta to step out." 

*'If such a thing is a surrender which could be con- 
strued as a degradation of my person," said Repolido, 
*'I shall not give in to an army of Switzers ; but if it 
is by way of giving Cariharta pleasure, I would not 
only go down on my knees, but I would drive a nail 
through my forehead to do her a service." 

At this, Chiquiznaque and Maniferro laughed heart- 
ily and in their mirth angered Repolido so much — for 
he thought they were making fun of him — that, show- 
ing unmistakable signs of wrath, he said: 

"H anyone laughs, or should think of laughing at 
what Cariharta against me, or I against her have said 
or shall say, I say that he lies or will lie every time 
that he should laugh or think of laughing, as I have 
already stated." 

Chiquiznaque and Maniferro looked at each other 
in a sinister fashion and Monipodio, having noticed 



io8 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

their looks, thought the squabble would have a bad 
ending, unless he interfered. And so, stepping be- 
tween them, he said : "Stop, gentlemen ! Let big words 
cease and let them pass no further than the teeth, and, 
since those already spoken do not come up to the belt, 
let no one take them to himself." 

*'We are quite sure," answered Chiquiznaque, 
"that Repolido's sermon was not, and will not, be 
preached for our benefit; for if anyone thought that 
it was addressed to us, then, the timbrel would be in 
those hands which know well how to play it." 

"We also have a timbrel, senor Chiquiznaque," 
replied Repolido, "and, if necessary, we could also 
jingle the bells, and I have already said that he who 
jests lies, and whoever should think otherwise, let him 
follow me ; for, even with a sword a span shorter, a 
man will make good what he has said." And so saying, 
he began to leave the house. 

Cariharta was listening to the altercation and, when 
she heard that Repolido was going away in a temper, 
she came out shouting: 

"Stop him ! Do not l2t him go, or he will work some 
mischief. Can you not see that he is angry, and that 
in matters of valor he is a real Judas Macarelo? Come 
back here, bravo of the world and of mine eyes !" And, 
closing with him, she held him tightly by the cloak. 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 109 

Monipodio came to her assistance and they succeeded 
in keeping him in. 

Chiquiznaque and Maniferro did not know whether 
to be angry or not, and they remained quiet, waiting to 
see what Repolido would do. The latter, finding him- 
self entreated by Cariharta and Monipodio, retraced 
his steps, saying: 

"Good friends should never give offence to their 
friends, nor make fun of their friends; the more so 
when they see that tlieir friends are getting angry." 

"There is no friend here," replied Maniferro, "who 
wishes to vex a friend or make fun of him and, since 
we are all friends, let friends shake hands." And here 
Monipodio said: "All your worships have spoken 
like good friends and, as such friends, let them shake 
their friends' hands." 

x\ll shook hands immediately and Escalanta, taking 
off one of her shoes, began to play on it as if it were a 
timbrel. Gananciosa seized a new broom of palm 
leaves, which happened to be there, and scratching it 
made a sound which, although hoarse and rough, har- 
monized with that of the shoe. Monipodio broke a 
plate and placing two of the pieces between his fingers 
and shaking them with great rapidity, made a counter- 
point to the shoe and the broom. 

Rinconete and Cortadillo were greatly astonished at 



no Rinconete and Cortadillo 

the device of the broom, for till then they had never 
seen it. Maniferro noticed this and said to them : 

"Are you astonished at the broom? You may Avell 
be; for readier, cheaper, and more joyful music was 
never invented in the world, and, truly, I heard the 
other day a student saying the Negrofeo, who rescued 
Arauz from hell, or Marion, who mounted the dolphin 
and came out of the sea as if he were riding a hired 
mule, or the other great musician who built a town 
with one hundred gates and as many posterns, never 
invented a better kind of music, so easy to learn, so 
handy to play, so devoid of frets, pegs, and strings, 
and requiring so little tuning. And yet, damn it, they 
say it was invented by a fop of this city who fancies 
himself a very Hector in music!" 

"I believe that," answered Rinconete, "but let us 
hear what our musicians are going to sing ; for it seems 
that Gananciosa has spat, a sign that she wishes to 
sing." And such was the case, for Monipodio had 
asked her to sing some seguidillas in the usual style. 
But the first to begin was Escalanta who, in a thin and 
flexible voice, sang the following: 

"For a brave Sevillian, like a Goth so fair, 

My poor heart doth languish and my soul despair." 
Gananciosa continued the song : 

"For a lad so handsome as my swarthy lad, 



Rinconete and Cortadillo iii 

Who's the lass warm-hearted that would not go 
mad?" 

And then Monipodio putting more vigor in the 
shaking of the sherds, sang: 

"When fond lovers settle and the quarrel's o'er, 

Great if was their anger, now their joy is more." 

Cariharta did not wish to remain silent, and taking up 

another shoe, gave vent to her joy by joining in the fun, 

and accompanied the rest, singing: 

"Oh stop, wrathful madman, buffet me no more. 

For 't is thine own flesh that thou makest sore !" 

"Sing plainly," said Repolido at this juncture, "and 

do not allude to past histories ; for there is no need of 

it. Let the past be past and let us follow another 

road, . . . and that v/ill do." 

They were showing no signs of bringing their singing 
to an end when they heard some one hurriedly knock- 
ing at the door, and Monipodio went to see who it was. 
The sentinel told him that the Chief Constable had 
appeared at the end of the street and that in front of 
him came Tordillo and Cernicalo, two neutral con- 
stables. Those in the court heard this and were greatly 
upset; so much so that Cariharta and Escalanta put 
on the other one's shoes, Gananciosa dropped the 
broom and Monipodio the sherds, and to the music 
succeeded an ominous silence. Chiquiznaque became 



112 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

dumb, Repolido was astonished, and Monipodio para- 
lysed. Then, one this way, another that way, they all 
disappeared, cUmbing to the azoteas and roofs of the 
houses in order to escape by them into another street. 
Never did an arquebuse untimely fired, or a sudden 
peal of thunder so scare a flock of unsuspecting doves, 
as the news of the arrival of the Chief Constable threw 
into panic and disorder all that company of honest 
people. 

The two novices, Rinconete and Cortadillo, did not 
know what to do with themselves and they remained 
quiet, waiting to see how that sudden storm would 
end. But it ended only by the return of the sentinel 
who said that the Chief Constable had passed along 
without giving sign or indication tliat he had any evil 
suspicions. 

As he was saying this to Monipodio, there came to 
the door a young gentleman dressed — as the expression 
commonly has it — de barrio. Monipodio showed him 
in and ordered Chiquiznaque, Maniferro, and Repolido 
to be called, but that none of the others should come 
down. 

As Rinconete and Cortadillo had remained in the 
court, they were able to hear all the conversation that 
passed between Monipodio and the newly-arrived 
gentleman, who asked Monpodio why they had carried 



1 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 113 

out so badly what he had entrusted to them. Moni- 
podio answered that he was not aware, as yet, of what 
had been done, but that the officer under whose charge 
his business had been placed v/as there, and that he 
would give a good account of himself, <^ 

At this moment Chiquiznaque came down and Moni- 
podio asked him if he had carried out the commission 
which was entrusted to him — the gash of fourteen 
stitches. 

"\^^ich one?" asked Chiquiznaque. "Is it the one 
to the merchant at the crossway?" 

''The very same," answered the gentleman, 

"Then, what happened is this," said Chiquiznaque, 
"I waited for him last night at the door of his house 
and he came before dusk. I went up to him and sur- 
veyed his face and I saw it was so small that, of all 
impossibilities, it was impossible to place in it a gash 
of fourteen stitches, and finding myself unable to ful- 
fil the promise, and to carry out what was in my 
destructions ..." 

"Instructions is what your worship means," in- 
terrupted the gentleman, "and not destructions." 

"That is what I meant," said Chiquiznaque. "I was 
saying that, seeing the narrowness and the small sur- 
face of his face could not contain the fourteen stitches 
bargained for, in order that my journey would not be 



114 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

in vain, I gave the gash to a footman of his and, 
surely, you may reckon it as being above the mark." 

"I would rather," said the gentleman, "you had 
given seven to the master than fourteen to the foot- 
man. In reality you have not acquitted yourselves as 
was right; but it matters not, for the thirty ducats I 
left as a pledge will make little difference to me. God 
be with you." 

And so saying he took off his hat and turned his 
back to go away, but Monipodio seized him by the 
tartan cloak he wore, saying: 

"Let your worship stop and fulfil his promise; for 
we have fulfilled ours with great honour and dispatch. 
There are twenty ducats wanting and your worship 
shall not leave this place without giving them, or secu- 
rities for that amount." 

"What !" exclaimed the gentleman, "does your wor- 
ship call that fulfilment of the promise — to give the 
gash to the servant when it should have been given to 
the master?" 

"How absolutely mistaken the gentleman is in the 
reckoning!" said Chiquiznaque. "One would think 
that he had forgotten the proverb which says: 'Love 
me, love my dog." 

"And in what way does the proverb fit in here?" 
asked the gentleman. 




TAKE THIS CHAIN AS A PLEDGE FOR THE TWENTY 
DUCATS . . /' 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 115 

"Is it not the same to say: 'Hate me. hate my dog?' 
and so, 'me' stands for the merchant, whom your wor- 
ship hates, and his footman is the 'dog,' and so, to 
strike the dog is to strike 'me' and thus the debt is 
cancelled and the contract must be carried out ; there- 
fore there is no other alternative but to pay without 
summons." 

"I swear to that," added Monipodio, "for everything 
you have said, friend Chiquiznaque, you took out of my 
very mouth, and so, gentle sir, do not let your worship 
quarrel with his friends and servants, but take my ad- 
vice and pay at once for what has been done and, if 
he would like that another gash — of as many stitches 
as his face could accomodate — should be given to the 
master, let him imagine that they are already dressing 
the wound." 

"If that be the case," said the fop, "I shall pay fully 
for both gashes with good will and pleasure." 

"Doubt it not," said Monipodio, "any more than that 
your worship is a Christian; for Chiquiznaque will 
give him a gash very neatly, in such a way that it will 
seem he was born with it." 

"With that assurance and promise," replied the 
gentleman, "take this chain as a pledge for the twenty 
ducats which are due, and forty more which I offer 
for the future gash. It is worth, by weight, one 



ii6 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

thousand reals and it might happen that I may not 
redeem it ; for I have in view anotlier fourteen stitches 
which shall be needed before long." 

Immediately he took off his neck a long chain of 
small links and handed it over to Monipodio who, by its 
color and weight, found it was not made of alchemy. 
Monipodio received it with much pleasure and court- 
esy ; for he was extremely well bred. 

The execution of the business was again entrusted 
to Cliiquiznaque who only asked for that very night 
as the term for carrying it out. The gentleman went 
away very pleased and then Monipodio called back 
all those who were absent and frightened. They all 
came back and Monipodio, standing in their midst, took 
out a book of memoranda which he carried in the 
hood of his cloak, and gave it to Rinconete to read; 
for he could not read himself. 

Rinconete opened the book and on the first page 
he saw that it said: 

MEMORANDUM OF THE GASHES TO BE 
GIVEN THIS WEEK 

The first, to the merchant at the crossway: worth 
fifty ducats : thirty have been received in part pay- 
ment. Xecutant, Chiquiznaque. 

"I do not think there are any others, my son," said 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 117 

Monipodio. "Go on and read where it says: 'Memo- 
randum of cudgellings/ " 

Rinconete turned over the leaf and saw that oia the 
other side there was written : 

MEMORANDUM OF CUDGELLINGS 
and lower down it said : 

To the inn-keeper of the Alfalfa twelve blows of the 

first magnitude, at one escudo each. There jhavc 

been given eight towards payment. Term : six 

days. Xecutant: Maniferro. 

"That item could be scored off/' said Maniferro, 

"for, to-night, I shall have done with it/' 

"Is there any more, my son?" asked Monipodio. 
"Yes, another one," answered Rinconete, "which 
says thus : 

To the hunch-back tailor, known by the name of 

Silguero, six blows of the first magnitude, by order 

of the lady who left the necklace. Xecutant, 

Desmochado." 

"I am astonished," said Monipodio, "at that item. 

still being there. Without a doubt Desmochado must 

be indisposed; for two days have passed beyond the 

term and he has not moved one finger in this business." 

"I met him yesterda}^" said Maniferro, "and he told 

m€ that, as the hunch-back was ill and confined to the 

house, he had not been able to fulfil his duty/' 



ii8 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

"I believe that," said Monipodio ; "for I hold Desmo- 
chado to be such an excellent lieutenant, that had it 
not been for this unavoidable inpediment he would have 
carried out even greater enterprises. Is there any- 
thing else, lad?" 

*'No, sir," answered Rinconete. 

"Then, pass on," said Monipodio, "and look where it 
says : 'Memorandum of petty offences.' " 

Rinconete turned over the leaves and on another 
page he found written: 

MEMORANDUM OF PETTY OFFENCES 
that is to say; blows with bottles, juniper oint- 
ments, nailing Sambenitos and horns, practical 
jokes, frights, rows, sham stabs, publication of 
libels, etc., etc. 

"What does it say lower down?" asked Monipodio. 

"It says: 'Juniper ointment in the house. . .' " 

"Do not read the house," interrupted Monipodio; 
"for I know where it is and I am the originator and 
executant of that trifle. Four escudos have been given 
towards payment and the price is eight." 

"That is true," said Rinconete; "for it is all written 
here, and a little further down it says: 'Nailing 
horns.' " 

"Do not read either the house or where it is ; for it 
is enough to do the job without having it mentioned in 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 119 

public, as it is a great charge upon the conscience. At 
least, I would rather nail one hundred horns and as 
many Samhenitos, if I were paid for my work, than 
mention it one single time, even if it \vere only to the 
very mother who bore me." 

''The executant of this," said Rinconete, ''is Nari- 
gueta." 

"That has been done and paid for," said Monipodio. 
"See if there is more; for, if I remember rightly, there 
ought to be there a fright worth twenty escudos. The 
half of it has already been paid, the executants are the 
whole brotherhood and the term the whole of this 
month, and it shall be carried out to the letter, without 
missing one dot, and it will be one of the best things 
which have happened in this city for a long time. Give 
me the book, lad ; for I know there is nothing else, and 
I also know that trade is very slack. But one time will 
follow another and we shall have more to do than we 
would wish for. For even a leaf does not stir without 
the will of God, and we cannot very vvcll force people 
to revenge themselves, all the more as each one is 
brave in his own case and does not care to pay other 
people to do the work he can do with his own hands." 

"So it is," said Repolido, "but let your worship, 
seiior Monipodio, see what he orders and commands us, 



I20 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

as it is getting late and the heat is increasing at th« 
double quick." 

"What is to be done," said Monipodio, "is that you 
all go to your posts, and let no one change places till 
Sunday, when we shall foregather here in this place and 
all that shall have fallen to us wil'l be divided without 
giving offence to anyone. To Rinconete and Cortadillo, 
the Good, we give until Sunday the district from the 
Torre del Oro, outside the city, to the gate of the 
Alcazar where, with their accomplishments, one could 
work sitting down; for I have seen others of less 
cunning than they finish up each day with more than 
twenty reals in coppers, not to mention the silver, with 
only one pack of cards, and even that four cards short. 
Ganchoso will show you the district, and even if you 
go as far as San Sebastian and Santelmo it matters 
little, although it is mere justice that no one should 
intrude upon the domain of others." 

They both kissed his hands for the favor he was 
conferring on them and they promised to do their duty 
well and faithfully and with great diligence and 
caution. Monipodio then produced from the hood of 
his cloak a paper folded up, where there was a list of 
the brethren, and he told Rinconete to put therein his 
name and that of Cortadillo, but as there was no ink, 
he gave him the paper to take away with him so that 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 121 

at the first apothecary's he might write them dowfi, 
putting: Rinconete and Cortadillo^ — brethren; appren- 
ticeship — none; Rinconete — card sharper; Cortadillo 
— pick-pocket, and the day, the month, and the year, 
omitting parents and country. 

As he was giving them his orders, one of the old 
avispones came in and said : 

"I came to tell your worships that I met Lobillo, 
from Malaga, just now at the Gradas, and he tells me 
that he has so bettered himself in his profession that 
with a clean pack he would w^n money from Satan 
himself. He does not come at once to report himself 
and pay his obeisance because he has arrived some- 
what injured, but he will be here on Sunday without 
fail." 

"I always was of opinion," said Monipodio, "that 
this Lobillo would be unique in his profession; for he 
possesses the best and most convenient hands for it 
that anyone could wish. For, to be a master in one's 
profession, there is as much need of good tools to work 
with as of ingenuity to learn it." 

"I also came across the Jew dressed as a clergyman," 
said the old man, "in one of the inns in the street of 
Tintores. He has gone to lodge there because he had 
news that two Peruleros live in the same house and he 
wanted to find out if he could induce them to play 



122 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

cards with him, even if it were for a small sum, as from 
that they might risk a larger one. He also says that he 
will not fail to be at the meeting on Sunday and give 
an account of his person." 

**That Jew," said Monipodio, '*is also a great pilferer 
and has great knowledge. I have not seen him for 
some days, and that is not good enough. And, in 
faith, if he does not mend his ways, I shall spoil his 
tonsure for him ; for the thief has taken no more orders 
than a Turk, nor does he know any more Latin than 
my own mother. Is there any more news?" 

"None," replied the old man, "at least, that I know 
of." 

"May it be in a good hour," said Monipodio. "Let 
your worships accept this trifle, (and he distributed 
among them about forty reals) and let no one be 
absent on Sunday; for there will be nothing missing 
of the booty." 

They all returned thanks and, Repolido and Cari- 
harta, and Gananciosa and Chiquiznaque, embraced 
each other again and arranged that, after leaving off 
work in the house, they should meet in that of Pipota, 
whither Monipodio said he would also go to inspect 
the wash basket, and that afterwards he would go to 
carry out and score off the commission of the juniper 
ointment. He embraced Rinconete and Cortadillo and 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 123 

giving them his blessing, dismissed them charging 
them never to have fixed or permanent lodgings ; for 
that was essential to the welfare of all. 

Ganchoso accompanied them till he had shown them 
their posts and reminded them not to be absent on Sun- 
day ; for as he thought and firmly believed, Monipodio 
was going to give them a lesson concerning things 
pertaining to their profession. With this he went away, 
leaving the two chums astonished at what they had 
seen. 

Rinconete — though only a lad — had a very good 
understanding and good natural inclinations and, as he 
had been engaged with his father in selling bulls, he 
knew something of correct language, and it gave him 
great amusement to think of the words he had heard 
from Monipodio and from others of his company and 
blessed brotherhood, especially when instead of saying 
per modum suffragii, he had said 'by way of ship- 
wreck,' and that they took the 'stupendous' (meaning 
stipend) from what they stole, and also when Cari- 
harta said that Repolido was like a Tarpeian sailor and 
a tiger from Ocana, instead of saying Hircania, with 
one thousand more impertinences like these. It espe- 
cially amused him when she said that Heaven, for the 
atonement of her sins, should take into account the 
trouble she had had in earning the twenty-four reals, 



124 Rinconete and Cortadillo 

but, above all, he was astonished at the firm belief asd 
faith they had that they would go to Heaven if they 
said their prayers, being — as they were — full of thefts, 
murders, and offences against God. And he laughed 
at the good old woman, Pipota, who left, under lock 
and key in her house the stolen basket to go and place 
some wax tapers before the images, and, withal, she 
thought she would go to Heaven clad and shod. 

Nor was he less astonished at the respect and obe- 
dience they showed to Monipodio, who was a rough 
man and a soulless barbarian. He thought of what 
he had read in the book of memoranda and of the 
exercises in which they were all engaged. Finally, he 
was surprised at the neglect of the police of that 
famous city of Seville, since people so pernicious and 
so contrary to Nature herself were able to live alm.ost 
in the open, and he made up his mind to advise his 
friend soon to abandon a life s* .se and evil, so 
restless, libertine, and dissolute. 

But with all this, carried away by his youth and want 
of experience, he lived in the same manner several 
months, during which time several [hings happened 
to him which demand a larger narrative, and so, I leave 
for some other occasion the relation of his life and 
miracles, as well as those of his leader Monipodio and 
other events that befell that infamous brotherhood; 



Rinconete and Cortadillo 125 

for all of them shall be of great importance and may 
be useful, as an example or warning, to those who 
should read them. 



NOTES 



Deacidified using the Bookkeef 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium 
Treatment Date: July 2008 

PreservationTechn 

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